Whytes

Whyte's in Dublin was not left feeling blue after William Scott’s ‘Blue Still Life’ sold for €450,000.

Easter Rising 1916 memorabilia may be treasured now by collectors, especially after last year’s centenary, but a medal just sold at auction in Ireland once ended up in a bin rather than proudly displayed.

An archive of over 400 letters and drawings by Sir William Orpen (1878-1931) has been acquired by the National Gallery of Ireland in a deal brokered by Dublin auctioneers Whyte’s.

In a new weekend series, Antiques Trade Gazette brings you a selection of quotes from dealers, auctioneers, collectors and others – from the future gazing to recalling past mistakes. For instance, which world famous art dealer sold a signed John Lennon album for a song?

Works from the estate of the late Irish art dealer George McClelland helped Dublin saleroom Whyte’s post their best result for an art auction since April 2008.

An original example of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic sold for €185,000 at Whyte’s of Dublin yesterday. Estimated at €150,000-250,000, the document published by the Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army was one of only 40-50 known copies left in existence and it drew competition from two phone bidders, one from Ireland and the other from the US who ended up as the successful buyer.

Leading auctioneers in Ireland and Scotland enjoyed a solid, if unspectacular, year of sales in 2015.

If ever there was a single record that could lay claim to truly starting the Rock and Roll era, it must be Elvis Presley’s first single ‘That’s all right (Mama)’, recorded in Memphis in July 5, 1954.

This portrait of Sinead O’Connor as a young girl was consigned to Whyte’s sale on November 26 by the singer herself.

Prices at auction for works by Basil Blackshaw have been slowly creeping up over the past few years and Northern Ireland’s most famous living artist now enjoys international acclaim.

ON the same day as Whyte’s Dublin sale, the Irish theme continued this side of the water at Essex when Sworders (15 per cent buyer’s premium) offered a drawing by Sir William Orpen (1878-1931) at their Stansted Mountfichet rooms on April 29 – a 16 by 14in (40 x 35cm) signed pencil and coloured washes piece entitled The Furniture Painter.

Specialist sales of Irish material are so few and far between that they are worth enumerating. The celebrated Lockett collec-tion was sold at Glendinings in 1956 and Whytes of Dublin held a landmark sale in April 2000.

EIRE: WHYTES of Dublin held their spring coin sale on February 23. Their regular sale results are very useful for gauging the market in Irish material and with the enhancement of the Irish economy in recent years there is much interest in it. This is made manifest by the fact that most of the buyers reported by Whytes are resident in Ireland.