Earlier this month, award-winning New York interior designer and co-founder of the Design Miami fair Amy Lau was asked to list her top three furniture pieces. Lau, who is considered to be one of the world's top three interior designers, included the Lumenoria table by Irish furniture maker Joseph Walsh, describing his work as "the heirlooms of tomorrow".
The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, Peregrine and Amanda Cavendish, are also fans of the self-taught maker who has a three-year waiting list for commissions and received an honorary doctorate of arts from University College Cork in 2015. In 2017, the couple commissioned Walsh to design pieces for Chatsworth House, their Grade I stately home in the Devonshire Dales which has been home to 16 generations of the Cavendish family. The house, which holds major collections including old masters such as Rembrandt and modern works by Lucien Freud, was used in the 2005 movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, and Cavendish recently remarked that while they currently use the two dozen Enignum chairs that Walsh created for their dining room, he expects that someday they "will be regarded as too important to risk being damaged".
The Mid-Century Modern sale, on November 2nd at Adam’s of St Stephen’s Green, has a remarkable sculptural piece by the Cork furniture maker who has taken the international design world by storm with his ethereal creations from his rural farmhouse studio. Dating from 2014 and part of his Opus collection, Lilium I is a phenomenal size at more than 3m in diameter.
"It was originally purchased at the Oliver Sears Gallery [in Dublin], and Walsh intended it to be suspended from a ceiling to fully appreciate the piece," according to Nicolas Gore Grimes, curator of the sale.
Dublin Castle
The piece is so large it would not fit through the doors of Adam’s, so it is currently on view in another stately building, the Throne Room at Dublin Castle. Even if the €100,000-€150,000 estimate is far beyond your budget, it is worth having a look at the work, which will more than likely be purchased for a very large private home or indeed as a statement piece for a corporate headquarters.
Included in the sale, which features legendary designers such as Ico Parisi, Arne Vodder and Angelo Lelli, is Gianfranco Frattini who has three pieces listed. Lot 4 is a smart rosewood sideboard with two tambour doors (€3,000-€5,000) and if you are in search of a really neat slimline desk, lot 19 is a walnut offering with an estimate of €2,000-€3,000. There is a great selection of Eames office chairs along with a remarkable selection of statement lamps including a Diplomat lamp by Louis Kalff from the 1970s. Two of these Z-shaped lamps featured in the popular French television series Call My Agent (Dix Pour Cent) – the sharp hilarious insight into agents managing the daily neuroses of celebrities – where they were used as bedside illumination for singer Julien Dore.
From the collection of architect Michael Scott, the pioneer and exponent of contemporary architecture in Ireland, are five artworks including Two Red Boots on a Black Background by Jim Dine (lot 93, €8,000-€12,000) and Untitled, Fragment 7, a screenprint in black and white on plexiglass by Bridget Riley (€20,000-€30,0000).
Morgan O’Driscoll
Another screenprint by Riley, who has had an exceptionally distinguished career having won the 1968 International Prize for Painting at the Venice Biennale, will feature in Morgan O'Driscoll's Irish and International Art sale on October 26th, with works on display in the RDS until Monday afternoon. Two Blues, numbered 7 from an edition of 250 is listed at €2,500-€3,500. Top lots in O'Driscoll's sale include Turf Stacks in Connemara by Paul Henry, which comes from the estate of James Ford Strachan IV in Australia (lot 16, €120,000-€160,000) and a composition of interlocking rectangles by Sean Scully, from a private collection which was originally purchased at William Beadleston Gallery in New York (lot 23, €60,000-€90,000).
Banksy, whose irreverent gimmicks continue to poke fun at the art world, is also featured with a colour screenprint, Jack and Jill (Police Kids), numbered 320 from an edition of 350 and listed at €60,000-€90,000.
Last week, Banksy's Love is in the Bin, which was what remained of a shredded Girl with Balloon antic from a sale in 2018, achieved a record £16m (€18.98m) against a reserve of £4-6m (€4.7-€7m). As the gavel dropped when it sold for £1m (€1.18m) in 2018 the piece shredded, so it appears the owner made a tidy sum of £15m (€17.7m) before commissions in the space of a three-year period, for shredded bits of paper. More Banksy works will be on sale at the RDS in Dublin, through Gormley's at Art Source (November 12th-14th) along with works by Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst totalling €1.3m.
adams.ie, morganodriscoll.com , gormleys.ie, artsource.ie
