Auction Results:
Monday, March 6th: Morgan O'Driscoll Auctioneers, Skibbereen, Co Cork. Irish Art Online Auction. 88 per cent of lots sold. Lot 64, The White Bull of Cooley by Ann Griffin-Bernstorff €7,000 (€800-€1,200); Lot 2, Horse by Basil Blackshaw €4,400 (€4,000-€6,000); Lot 8, Farmstead with Cows Grazing by the River by Frank McKelvey €4,000 (€4,000-€6,000); Lot 79, Famine Family – bronze sculpture from an edition of nine by John Behan €1,800 (€2,000-€3,000).
Tuesday, March 7th: Christie's, London. Evening auction of Post-War and Contemporary Art. A drawing (oil stick on paper) Untitled 1982 a self-portrait by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, owned by the U2 guitarist Adam Clayton, sold for £2.2 million (€2.5m) – above the top estimate of £1.5 million (€1.7).
Tuesday, March 7th: Christie's, Paris. The auction of contents from the Palais Rose of Boniface de Castellane and Anna Gould realised a total of €14.2 million with 96 per cent of lots sold. Lot 46, Piazza San Marco, with the basilica and the campanile by Francesco Guardi made €6.7 million – the highest price achieved by far for an old master painting sold at auction in France over the past two decades; Lot 19, the Jardin Japonais desk set – designed to look like an oriental garden and made of coral, jade, rock crystal, pearls, lapis-lazuli, mother-of-pearl, lacquer, diamonds and enamel – achieved €1.1 million, a new record for an object by Cartier sold at auction.
Tuesday & Wednesday, March 7th & 8th: Sheppard's Irish Auction House, Durrow, Co Laois. Classical Convergences sale – 83 per cent of lots sold. Lots relating to the Bowen family who lived at Kilnacourt House, Portarlington, Co Laois, in the 19th century included Lot 67, a platinum and gold, old mine-cut diamond brooch €3,800 (€1,500-€2,500); Lot 406, an album of five late 19th century oval portraits of €1,700 (€500-€800); Lot 384, Victorian walnut games compendium from Asprey of London, dated 1869, €1,000 (€300-€500); Lot 506, a classic Victorian oil-on-canvas, Horse and Greyhounds by the English artist John Emms €17,500 (€12,000-€18,000) [see pic]; and Lot 753, a collection of cutlery silver flatware – 123 pieces containing 6.6 kilos of solid silver, €4,000 (€2,000-€3,000). Among other highlights Lot 1164, an elaborate table centrepiece known as a surtout de table made in London circa 1805 by royal goldsmiths Rundell, Bridge & Rundell, commissioned for his home, Kilkenny Castle, by Walter Butler, 1st Marquess of Ormonde, sold for €25,500 (€20,000-€40,000). The gilt-bronze, mirrored piece last appeared at Sotheby's in London just two years ago when it was sold off by the Butler family and made £18,750 €21.6k). Among the unsold lots – Lot 392 – an early 19th century Irish mahogany side-table made by the Dublin firm Mack, Williams & Gibton estimated at €15,000-€25,000 and which was among the very few unsold lots at last year's big auction of the contents of Loughton House, Co Offaly (the former country home of deputy Fine Gael leader Dr James Reilly).
