A recent art and antiques auction totalled more than £2 million sterling (€3.15 million), nearly £700,000 of which was for a single hidden collection.
It included a highly sought after 1822 Irish Freedom Box, presented by the City of Cork, which sold for almost four times its top estimate.
Mr Joe Marshall, who died last August aged 91, had been in the antiques trade in Blackburn, Lancashire, for almost 80 years. He kept some of his best pieces in a secret vault hidden behind a dresser in his kitchen before finally revealing the collection to Sotheby's in 1996.
Mr Marshall invited Mr Tim Wonnacott, chairman of Sotheby's in West Sussex, to visit his home three times. On the first occasion Mr Marshall was asked to value the contents of three or four rooms. On the second it was just tea and biscuits, but on the third visit, Mr Marshall ushered Mr Wonnacott into the kitchen, pushed aside a kitchen dresser and opened a door leading to a huge vault.
It contained a large collection of paintings, ceramics and fine objects that Mr Marshall had secured during his days as a dealer.
Notable objects from the Marshall collection included a 20-carat Irish Freedom Box, presented by the city of Cork to Richard Marquess Wellesley, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, brother of the Duke of Wellington, on January 30th, 1822. Estimated at £8,000 to £12,000, it sold to a New Bond Street dealer for £40,250.
"Freedom boxes derive from seal boxes and it became the custom for important documents, especially those representing the Freedom of the City, to be held in silver or gold boxes," said Sotheby's. Other highlights included a small and highly detailed oil painting by Charles Spencelayh (1865-1958), titled Mother, which went for £67,850, exceeding its estimate of £40,000 to £60,000. Another Spencelayh painting titled Love Birds sold for £63,250, also exceeding its estimate of £40,000 to £60,000. Both pictures were acquired by an anonymous bidder.
From other properties, an Irish collector paid £15,180 for a Queen Anne walnut and feather banded bureau bookcase, exceeding its estimate of £6,000. A 1730 English ebony-veneered musical table clock made the highest price of the day for clocks and barometers. Discovered by a Sotheby's valuer, it sold for £14,950 to a London dealer for almost five times its £3,000 top estimate.
The theme of surprising discoveries surfaced across the Atlantic too. At a recent William Doyle Galleries auction in New York, a California couple saw a painting that had been appraised on an Antiques Roadshow TV programme make $63,000 (€68,610).
Mr Alan Fausel, a paintings and drawings specialist with Doyle New York, spotted the Old Master painting while taking part in the Roadshow last summer. It had been given to its owner Mrs Michael Dahl years earlier by an aunt who told her "to hang on to it because it might be worth something someday". Mrs Dahl had kept it for 25 years.
Mr Fausel spotted the elaborately carved and unusual frame from a distance and approached Mr and Mrs Dahl. He estimated it at $40,000 to $60,000. "I would have given you $5 for it, so when we heard the appraisal, we were stunned," said Mr Dahl.
The 1750 painting, resembling the work of Spanish artist Juan Ruiz, shows a sweeping view of Naples, with detailed ships in the harbour and a landscape of castles, churches, houses and Mount Vesuvius smouldering in the distance.
The Irish International Coin Fair takes place on Saturday and Sunday, February 24th and 25th at the RDS Ballsbridge Concourse and Lawn Restaurant, Anglesea Road entrance, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Organisers promise rare and interesting exhibits in coins, tokens, banknotes, medals and militaria. Admission £2 (children £1).
Websites:
William Doyle Galleries: www.DoyleNewYork.com
Sotheby's: www.sothebys.com
jmarms@irish-times.ie
