Bargain hunters and bric-a-brac enthusiasts will have lots to view at the first Lynes & Lynes auction of the year.
The sale of decorative arts pieces, vintage advertising signs and furniture includes items from homes of prominent figures. These include Bishop Paul Colton and his wife, Susan Colton, as the couple are moving their personal belongings from the Bishop’s Palace upon his retirement this month as the long-serving Church of Ireland Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross.
Interior designers and homeowners seeking out interesting pieces for kitchen dressers or decorative shelving units will hone in on the many lots of china jugs, meat platters, plain and coloured glassware, and novelty items such as the brass dinner gong and beater on a carved oak stand (€20-€40).
There are also cutlery sets and batches of silver cutlery, including some old bone-handled fish knives and forks (€30-€50). The 166-piece set of Copeland Spode chinaware (€300-€500), and the 16-piece set of Stephen Pearse pottery (€60-€80) will no doubt attract attention.
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The intricate brass and oak postal scales (€30-€40) would fit well into a communications museum – something, no doubt, future museum curators in Ireland might consider setting up. The collection of old telephones (€20-€40) would equally suit such a museum.
Denis Lynes is particularly excited about two late entries to the auction. The first is an Art Deco French silver tea and coffee service with salver (€5,000-€6,000). “Produced circa 1930, it has a high silver content of 95 per cent as compared to sterling silver, which has 92.5 per cent silver and 7.5 per cent copper. The total weight is 265 troy ounces,” explains Lynes. A troy ounce – a measure used for trading in metals – is about 31.1g as compared to a standard ounce weighing 28.35g.
The other silver service – with a kettle, teapot, coffee pot, jug and sugar bowl - in the auction was made in Dublin in 1916/1917, and weighs 122 troy ounces (€2,000-€2,500). A collection of 12 Cork silhouettes by Cork artist Stephen O’Driscoll (1825- 1895), with an estimate of €2,500-€3,500, is a lot that will attract local interest. There’s advance viewing in the Lynes & Lynes auction rooms in Carrigtwohil, Co Cork, from today until April 24th, 10am-5pm daily. The sale takes place on Saturday, April 25th.
Meanwhile, another Cork-based auctioneer, Morgan O’Driscoll, is showing lots from his forthcoming auctions of Irish and International Art on April 21st, and Fine Jewellery & Watches on April 22nd, in the Minerva Suite of the RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 today, tomorrow and Monday, April 20th.
The jewellery auction has plenty of beautiful rings, bracelets, brooches and earrings. The gold and gemstone mesh bracelet set with multicoloured gemstones and diamonds (€12,000-€ 18,000), the 18-carat gold violin brooch (€1,000-€1,500), and the Victorian novelty brooch circa 1880 (€2,000-€3,000) are among the standout pieces.
New art collectors will get a good snapshot of Irish artists – both living and dead - whose work regularly comes up for sale at the Morgan O’Driscoll art auction. Works by Sean McSweeney, Hughie O’Donoghue, Donald Teskey, John Shinnors, Basil Blackshaw, Mildred Anne Butler and Grace Henry feature, to mention but a few. There are also painters whose work appears less regularly at auction – take for example, the Bank of Flowers watercolour on paper by Belfast-born Andrew Nicholl (1804-1886), with an estimate of €3,000-€5,000, and Trees in Sunlight by Swiss-born, Belfast-based, Hans Iten (1874-1930), with an estimate of €1,000-€1,500. Iten was considered to be one of the finest flower painters in Ireland during his lifetime.
The 1897 still life painting Chrysanthemums and Christmas Roses, by Irish artist Roderic O’Conor (1860-1940), is undoubtedly one of the highlights in the upcoming Fonsie Mealy auction from April 29th to May 1st. Considered by art critics to be close to O’Conor’s Still Life with Apples and Breton Pots in the National Gallery of Ireland, both in style and when it was painted, its re-emergence on the market after a few decades in a private collection will cause a bit of a frisson among O’Conor art enthusiasts. It has an estimate of €80,000-€100,000.
Similar to the Lynes & Lynes auction, the 1,300 lots in the Fonsie Mealy auction deserve a good browsing, as they contain everything from jewellery and watches, 19th and 20th century paintings, and vintage and antique china, to Edwardian and Georgian furniture, historic rugs, luggage chests and silver. The variety of silver from England, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, France and even Russia, gives an insight into the various styles across the Continent. Viewing takes place at Fonsie Mealy’s Chatsworth Auction Rooms, Castlecomer, on Sunday, April 26th from 1.30pm to 5pm, and on Monday and Tuesday, April 27th & 28th, from 10am to 5pm.
Lynesandlynes.com; morganodriscoll.com; fonsiemealy.ie
What did it sell for?
Rosewood desk by Nanna Ditzel
Estimate €6,000-€8,000
Hammer price: €6,000
Auction house Adam’s
Six Eileen Gray Roquebrune chairs
Estimate €3,000-€5,000
Hammer price: Unsold
Auction house Adam’s
Pair of Guzzini floor lamps
Estimate €2,000-€3,000
Hammer price: €3,000
Auction house Adam’s
Six barrel cherrywood chairs by Frank Lloyd Wright
Estimate €3,000-€5,000
Hammer price: €8,000
Auction house Adam’s
