Kells-based auctioneer Damien Matthews is holding a three-day sale taking place today and tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday, May 22nd and 23rd, and also on Tuesday, May 25th, which has in excess of 1,000 lots from five Dublin properties. Of interest is a pair of funeral coffin biers used to support the coffin of late taoiseach Charles J Haughey, along with an old framed newspaper article regarding one of his election victories (lot 355, €50-€80). The Tuesday sale comprises jewellery that the auctioneer says represents "really great value and about one-quarter of what one would pay in a jewellery shop".
Running until Sunday, May 23rd, Hegarty's auction house in Co Cork is holding a timed online sale that encompasses an interesting collection of Irish art, with more than 30 paintings, including works by John Butler Yeats, Douglas Alexander, John Morris, Lorna Millar, Con Campbell, Terry Delaney and Claude Davidson. Of interest here is a carved mahogany Irish harp, which is an example of Irish political prisoner art (lot 25, €250-€350); a white gold and sapphire (2.1ct of sapphire) cluster ring (lot 14, €3,000-€6,000), and a large mid-20th-century marble top kingwood and tulipwood three-drawer commode (lot 11, €1,800-€2,500).
Ending Monday, May 24th, bidding for Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish Online Art Auction is currently open. Highlights include Evie Hone’s Kerry Coastal Landscape (lot 2, €3,000-€5,000); Martin Gale’s High Field (lot 5, €4,000-€6,000), and Tony O’Malley’s A Silence (lot 11, €8,000-€12,000).
Now that we are allowed to meet family and friends outdoors, the RJ Keighery Annual Garden Auction, an online sale on Saturday, May 29th, is well timed. With more than 500 lots, the sale has a wide range of items covering everything from fountains and cast-iron flamingos to bird baths and motorbikes. Highlights include a pair of 18ft-wide Victorian gates (lot 440, €4,000-€6,000); a cast-iron tower bell from Whitfield Court in Co Waterford (lot 250, €2,000-€3,000), and a pair of gates from Reddy’s Forge from 1870 (lot 435, €1,000-€1,500).
On Monday, May 31st, Oliver Usher will hold an online sale of 600 lots, including items from the estate of the late Jean Norton, of Castletown Tara House in Co Meath, along with two house clearances and residual items from The Far East offices. Highlights include a 14ft Victorian mahogany D-end dining table (lot 504, €1,950-€2,500); a 19th-century mahogany Biedermeier escritoire (lot 350, €400-€700); two Percy French landscapes (lot 33, €1,800-€2,000), and a four-piece coffee/tea set of Celtic Revival Irish silver (lot 450, €800-€900).
Of Irish interest at Sotheby’s Art Contemporain Evening Sale in Paris on Thursday, June 3rd, is Sean Scully’s Double Window from 1998, a large oil on canvas (lot 113, €350,000-€550,000 – the painting is also subject to payment of the artist’s resale rights). A note in the catalogue from Scully regarding the work reads: “I think that I make chords when I paint, so I think you would be listening to the cello. It’s deep, and resonant.”
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