Diana photograph could be star of bank holiday sales

Holiday-makers and locals in Connemara and west Cork this Bank Holiday weekend have access to two big art and antiques' auctions. In west Cork, Morgan O'Sullivan auctioneers is holding a viewing all weekend for an online art auction. The 189 Lots – paintings, sculpture and photographic prints – are on view in the Skibbereen saleroom from 11am to 5pm today, tomorrow and Monday but bidding (already under way) is online-only via the website (morganosdriscoll.com) and the auction ends Tuesday (August 8th) between 6.30pm and 8.50pm.

Highlights include Lot 3, The Grey Van, oil-on-board, by Basil Blackshaw (€2,000-€4,000); Lot 4, Study for a Portrait of Graham Norton, chalk-on-canvas, by Gareth Reid (€1,500-€2,500) [see pic]; and, Lot 13, Lady Diana Spencer, photographed with children at London Kindergarten, September 1980, a silver gelatin print, no 7 from an edition of 25, by the Irish photographer John Minihan (€1,000-€1,500) [see pic].

Meanwhile, Galway-based auctioneers Dolan's will hold a two-day auction on Monday and Tuesday (August 7th & 8th) at 12.30pm each day in the village of Ballyconneely (about 9km from Clifden via the R341). Viewing is open today and tomorrow from 10am-7pm. The 500 lots include an eclectic mix of nostalgia-inducing vintage toys, collectibles, traditional antiques and a wide selection of modestly-priced art. Lot 6, is a Victorian box of cubed jigsaw blocks inscribed "To William Swaine Marsh, from his Papa, on his fourth Birthday, 7th September 1861", estimated at €180-€250. For men who are trainspotting boys at heart, there's a large cast-metal model of a steam locomotive with a single piece of wooden track (€1,000-€1,500). Collectors of medical and pharmacy paraphernalia will be interested in a late Victorian chemist's brass and wood pill-maker, made by Mawson & Thompson, London, circa 1900 (€160-€180). Lot 43, is a Victorian silver pedestal christening mug, engraved with panels of roses, made in London in 1874 (€180-€280). Lot 66D, is a Victorian cast-iron foot-scraper, set in a sandstone block (€160-€180). There's a big selection of art – paintings and sculpture – mostly with modest estimates, including, serendipitously given the auction venue, Mannin Bay, Ballyconneely, a watercolour by Robert Egginton [see pic], estimated at €700-€900 and the rather more expensive Connemara Bogpools, oil-on-canvas, by Patrick Hennessy (€6,000-€8,000) [see pic]. Other artists featured include John Schwatschke, Graham Knuttel , Martin Gale, Jack Donovan, Mark O'Neill, Markey Robinson, Arthur K Maderson, John Morris Ivan Sutton, Thelma Mansfield, Donald Teskey and sculptor John Behan.

In west Cork, Morgan O'Sullivan auctioneers is holding a viewing all weekend for an online art auction. The 189 Lots – paintings, sculpture and photographic prints – are on view in the Skibbereen saleroom from 11am to 5pm today, tomorrow and Monday but bidding (already under way) is online-only via the website (morganosdriscoll.com) and the auction ends Tuesday (August 8th) between 6.30pm and 8.50pm. Highlights include Lot 3, The Grey Van, oil-on-board by Basil Blackshaw (€2,000-€4,000); Lot 4, Study for a Portrait of Graham Norton, chalk-on-canvas, by Gareth Reid (€1,500-€2,500); and Lot 13, "Lady Diana Spencer, photographed with children at London Kindergarten, September 1980", a silver gelatin print, No 7 from an edition of 25 by the Irish photographer John Minihan (€1,000-€1,500) [see pic].