Ireland

One of Ireland’s leading provincial auction houses, Mealy’s Fine Art of Castlecomer, County Kilkenny, has ceased trading after 84 years.

These outsize tongs, below, proved the major surprise at Adam’s (20% buyer’s premium) in Dublin on June 17.

Irish silver was popular at Adam’s (20% buyer’s premium) in June – see ATG next week – and Irish furniture did well enough, with a c.1830 serpentine side table with marble-and-malachite top getting away at €8000 (£7000).

John Magnier, the Irish horse breeder and art collector, reportedly made a five-fold return on his Amadeo Modigliani reclining nude when it sold at Sotheby’s New York last month for $139m (£102.2m).

Though their output was dwarfed by their male counterparts, talented 20th century Irish female artists pack a punch in the saleroom when their art does appear at auction.

A rare James II ‘gunmoney’ half-crown sold for €10,500 (£8850) at Whyte’s sale titled the Eclectic Collector in Dublin.

Like Romeo and Juliet, Hellelil and Hildebrand’s relationship was doomed from the start.

The work of Dublin painter Louis le Brocquy (1916-2012) is strengthening after the value of his work went spiralling downwards at the height of the Celtic Tiger crash nearly a decade ago.

First-edition sets with well-preserved jackets and perhaps a signature or an inscription usually make the really big money where Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is concerned, but a recent Dublin sale produced something rather unusual.

In Europe we covered antiques markets in France and Italy plus those across the pond in the US. In December this column ran a profile on Frenchman Nicolas Martin, founder of an influential global fleamarkets website. In August I visited and wrote about the buzzing Foire de Chatou outside Paris.

The material connected with William Butler Yeats in the family home of his son, the late Senator Michael, has proved as controversial – and profitable – as the great man’s writing itself.

A week before Fonsie Mealy’s William Butler Yeats sale, the auctioneers’ neighbours, kith and rivals Mealy’s (20% buyer’s premium) had a couple of eyecatchers in its November 8 sale at Castlecomer.

Further items from the talented Yeats family are heading to auction this autumn.

Since the Celtic Tiger’s demise a decade ago and the tailspin that ensued, the Irish art market has evolved into a more cautious and less speculative beast. The latest round of sales held towards the end of September and into October showed steady (if not spectacular) demand, especially for the big, bankable names.

Adam’s mammoth annual Country House Collections auction is designed to cater to those with spacious, preferably period, abodes.

Irish dealer organises events in Dublin with another coming up next month...