Penny Day, Head of Irish Art at Bonhams, the international fine art auction house, is heading for China and Australia to source Irish art for sale in London following the establishment of a specialist Irish Art Department at Bonhams.
From the end of October through to early November Penny Day will be on the road meeting the expatriate Irish community in Hong Kong and Australia, as well as lovers and collectors of Irish Art which is now achieving impressive prices in London.
Bonhams will hold its first sale of Irish Art on 9th February 2011 in New Bond Street, marking the end of the company’s long-standing association with Adams Auctioneers in Dublin. After twelve years of working jointly on Irish Art auctions, Bonhams and Adams have decided to hold separate sales.
Penny is also a Senior Specialist in the 20th Century British Art Department at Bonhams and is available to discuss and value works from this field too. The next auction for Modern British will be in March 2011.
Penny will be in:
Hong Kong : 26 – 29 October
Sydney : 30 October – 3 November
Melbourne : 4 – 5 November
The Department will offer an annual sale including traditional and modern paintings, works on paper and sculpture, representing the very best of Irish art. The forthcoming sale on February 9th will include exceptional examples by Yeats, Lavery, O’Neill, Dillon and Nicol, among others.
Among leading Irish artists sold by Bonhams in previous years is the esteemed Louis le Brocquy, arguably Ireland’s finest living artist. Both ‘Study for Reconstructed Head of Samuel Beckett’ and ‘Fantail Pigeon’ commanded six figure prices.
The charming ‘Dooega’ by Paul Henry was discovered on the Antiques Roadshow and Bonhams later sold the little landscape for almost five times the low estimate. Valued at £40,000-60,000, competitive bidding saw it achieve over £170,000.
Sculpture as well as pictures have performed well, ‘Patriarch’ by F.E. McWilliam fetched over £50,000 against an estimate of £15,000-20,000.
Matthew Girling, Bonhams CEO Europe and the Middle East, comments: “Irish Art at Bonhams has a distinguished track record so I am delighted that we will now have our own dedicated Irish Art Department to celebrate the work of leading Irish artists.”
James Hendy, CEO of Bonhams Australia, comments: “Bonhams offers Australians an opportunity to ensure that their Irish works of art are marketed in the most important centres for such material, places where the highest prices are achieved. We have already shown with our first Owston Collection Sale just how buoyant the Australian Art Market is, but we have to be fair to our clients and accept that not everything will achieve the best price here. For certain objects New York, Hong Kong, London, Dubai will achieve a better result. This is the essence of dealing with a local-international auction house like Bonhams.”
Image: Paul Henry R.H.A. (1876-1958) Dooega, Achill Island, Co.Mayo,
Sold for £148,346
www.bonhams.com/irishart
