Readers have asked for updates on prices realised at auction, so this week we look at selected world records and highlights achieved in Ireland and Britain so far this year.
A world record £52,000 (#66,000) was paid for a 1916 Proclamation at Whyte's auction rooms in Dublin last January. At the same auction, a postcard written by James Joyce to his publisher fetched £9,000, which according to the director, Mr Ian Whyte, was "probably the highest price ever paid for a postcard" at auction worldwide.
Last May, a 1943 Irish florin in mint condition sold at the same house for £14,500, while another highlight from Whyte's was £480 paid for a 1947 GAA football final programme. It took place on September 14th at the Polo Grounds, New York, the only final played outside the State.
Some of the top prices achieved so far this year at Mealy's auction rooms in Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny, include £18,000 for a pair of 10inch celestial and terrestrial globes, paid by John Senex, London 1738. Another pair of globes by D Adams, London 1738, sold for £17,000. In June, Mealy's sold an Irish mahogany kneehole writing cabinet for £30,000 and a pair of George IV rosewood library armchairs for £26,000, highlights from a sale which also saw £17,000 paid for a George III period mahogany bookcase.
Jewellery highlights sold at O'Reilly's auction rooms, Francis Street, Dublin include £14,000 paid for a 2.47 carat diamond solitaire ring and a three-stone diamond ring which went under the hammer at £10,000.
At Christie's in London on June 22nd, a pair of maroon leather Baily's lace-up boxing gloves worn by Cassius Clay in his fight against Henry Cooper in 1963 sold for £37,600 sterling (#61,600), far exceeding the presale estimate of £10,000£15,000. A series of ten autograph and 64 typed letters, all unpublished, signed by P G Wodehousewere sold to a private collector for £28,200, more than tripling the lowest and doubling the highest pre-sale estimate of £8,000£12,000.
Christie's set a world record for a Majolica teapot sold at auction when a cobalt-blue teapot and cover sold for £67,550, leaving its pre-sale estimate of £15,000£20,000 in the shade. Jane Austen's Pride and Prej- udice, London T. Egerton, 1813, was sold to the trade on June 6th for £23,500, against a pre-sale estimate of £7,000£10,000. In the same auction, Charles Dickens's collection of 28 works in 43 volumes, London: 1836-1880 sold to the US trade for £22,325, more modestly - if still significantly - exceeding the £10,000£15,000 estimate. Returning briefly to globes, Christie's sold a pair of Coronelli library globes, 1698, for £113,750 in early June, while a pair of Doppelmayr table globes, 1728, sold for £32,250.
A world record at auction was set for a piece of ancient gold jewellery when a third century BC Celtic La Tene gold warrior fibula fetched £1,103,750 at Christie's in April. It was bought by the British Museum. Cars from Elton John's collection sold last month for a total of £1,951,725. Louis Walsh, described by Christie's as "Band Manager from Dublin" bought a 1962 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III standard steel saloon for £86,250, far in excess of the presale estimate of £20,000-£30,000.
Sotheby's saw a single-owner wine collection total £2.6 million sterling in late June. Comprising some of the world's most sought after wines, it was the fourth highest grossing single-owner wine sale at auction worldwide. In 1997, Sotheby's sold the Andrew Lloyd Webber collection for £3,692,821 sterling. Sotheby's holds the record for wine sold at auction when the so-called Millennium Wine Cellar sold for $14,414,805 (#16,568,740) in New York in November 1999.
jmarms@irish-times.ie
