AFTER THE doldrums of January, the spring auction season is gradually recommencing at salerooms around the country next week.
In Co Cavan, auctioneer Victor Mee of Cloverhill Property & Antiques in Belturbet will sell some of the contents from a house on Shrewsbury Road, including a Portrait of William de Salis Filgate. The painting, circa 1910, shows the former British soldier (Crimean War and Indian Mutiny) who lived at Lisrenny House, Ardee, Co Louth dressed as Master of the Louth Hounds. The artist was Sarah Cecilia Harrison, a noted portrait painter, friend of Hugh Lane and the first woman councillor elected to Dublin Corporation (city council). The estimate is €2,000-€4,000. The auction is on Monday at 5.30pm.
On St Valentine's Day, last-minute romantic gifts at Adams Blackrock auctioneers include: a mid-20th century diamond clip brooch €4,500-€5,000; a painting titled Valentine Rosesby Thelma Mansfield €650-€750; a tortoiseshell and silver jewellery box €400-€600; and, for someone in the doghouse, a Victorian silver dog collar €200-€300.
Among other highlights are: Abstract Forms(oil-on-canvas) by Mainie Jellett €15,000-€18,000; Two Women by the Sea(oil-on-canvas) by Daniel O'Neill, €8,000-€10,000; and a George III mahogany serpentine hall table (purchased at the Kilkenny Castle sale in 1935) €1,000-€1,300. The auction is at 11am on Tuesday in Adams Blackrock, 38 Main Street, Blackrock, Co Dublin.
Next Saturday morning at 11am in John Street, Kells, Co Meath, auctioneer Oliver Usher will sell some 1,000 items from the private collection of the late William Battersby of Navan - a lifelong collector with a remarkably diverse range of interests.
The range of items includes vintage farm implements, such as wooden horse- and oxen-drawn ploughs and turf-cutting "sleáns"; old shop cash registers; biscuit and tobacco tins; tea chests and enamel advertising signs; vintage kitchen implements, including "antique washing machines, butter churns, early vacuum cleaners, griddles, smoothing irons and rush lights"; pottery and porcelain; gramophones and records; paintings and prints.
