The global art market recovered strongly in 2022, shrugging off the strictures of the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the 2022 Art Basel Market Report, written by the Irish cultural economist Dr Clare McAndrew, aggregate sales by dealers and auctioneers worldwide reached $65.1 billion (€61.5 billion) in 2022, up by 29 per cent since the pandemic hit in 2020.
Adam’s Important Irish Art sale in December brought a gross total €1.135 million. Top prices of the evening were, as predicted, through blue chip artists, with The Sick Bed by Jack B Yeats achieving €160,000, while his work The Duet sold for €70,000. The diminutive Connemara Hills by Paul Henry sold for €92,000, while Evie Hones’s Abstract Composition achieved €34,000.
At its June sale, the recently discovered pair of William Ashford oils, Two Views of Dublin Bay Looking North and South, which miraculously stayed together for 150 years, having lost their attribution, achieved €460,000, while Jack B Yeats’s “largest and most ambitious painting based on the scenery in Skibbereen”, The Bridge at Skibbereen, sold for €440,000, while his The Folded Heart achieved €220,000.
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Ian Whyte reported a strong year, despite economic uncertainty, where “many buyers seemed to be looking for a hedge against inflation”. Whyte’s Important Irish Art sale in November grossed €1.25 million. Top results were Walter Frederick Osborne, The Sunshine and Blossom, €160,000; Paul Henry, Turf Stacks in the West, €130,000; Sean Keating, Unloading the Turf, Aran, €75,000; and Still Life with Saucepan by William Scott, €72,000. In June, Jack B Yeats sold well, with The Little Sister of the Gang achieving its higher estimate of €200,000, while The Reading Room sold just above its higher estimate, realising €95,000. In its September sale, his The Changing Dawn sold for €220,000 and River Mouth took €180,000, while William Scott’s Chinese Orange III achieved €110,000, against its lower estimate of €40,000.
Similarly at de Vere’s sale in November, William Scott had a strong result with Deep Blues selling for €50,000, while Paul Henry’s Cottages by the Lake realised €75,000 – showing there is still a continued demand for Henry’s work among Irish collectors. Jack B Yeats featured again, with The Train through the Woods achieving €60,000. An Irish mahogany sidetable achieved €29,500 on the night, almost double its lower estimate of €15,000. In June the house had notable results including Jack B Yeats’s A Lament (The Funeral of Harry Boland), which achieved €250,000, while two works by Roderic O’Conor fared well when The Breaking Wave realised €230,000, and the incredible Landscape with Trees sold for €300,000 – double its lower estimate.
All that glisters
In the world of jewellery, a Patek Phillippe Nautilus automatic gentlemen’s watch, which had a valuation at €23,100 from Weirs in 2015, achieved a whopping €58,000 through Lynes and Lynes in September. A stand-out result at Adam’s September sale was the €110,000 paid for the rare mystery set sapphire and diamond flower brooch by Van Cleef & Arpels. Despite having a fault, it was purchased after a bidding frenzy by an American collector for more than double its higher estimate of €50,000. A pair of early 20th century sapphire and diamond pendant earrings fared well in December, also through Adam’s, when they sold for €28,000, almost double their higher estimate of €15,000, while the €24,000 realised for the lapis lazuli gold Alhambra sautoir necklace by Van Cleef and Arpels from 1980 (at the same sale) against its €12,000-€18,000 reserve, is a clear indication of the brand’s collectability.
Overseas sales
There were a number of big name Irish painters which sold overseas.
Through Sotheby’s, Paul Henry’s The Entrance to Killary Bay sold for £75,600 (€88,013), while the superb bronze The Settlers, by Rowan Gillespie, sold for £47,880. At its Ireland/France Art and Literature sale, Roderic O’Conor’s Rocks and Foam, St Guénolé, achieved €352,800, while the surprise of the day was the €88,200 achieved for Mainie Jellett’s Pieta, against its €15,000-€25,000 reserve. Jack B Yeats’s The Train through the Wood achieved £45,660 through Bonhams, who also realised £60,780 for Sir John Lavery’s Bull Fight and £9,562 for an Irish Neolithic bog dugout canoe from the Jim Lennon Collection. (Note UK results include premium)
Collectables
Notable results for collectables include the €58,000 paid for Dr Kathleen Lynn’s 1916 Rising Service Medal at Mullen’s Collector’s Cabinet sale, where a 1930s red model toy Alfa Romeo P2 racing car sold for €4,600; Countess Markievicz’s rosewood writing slope sold for €2,800, and a book of poetry, Inisfail, by Aubrey de Vere and inscribed by Roger Casement, achieved €7,000.
At Fonsie Mealy’s Christmas Rare Book and Collectors sale, a 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic realised €170,000, an autographed James Joyce letter €16,000, and a Michael Collins pocket seal sold for €4,800.
Collectables abroad included a rare Irish provincial silver ladle by Limerick silversmith Samuel Johns, which sold through Chiswick Auctions for £3,125.
The most remarkable result of the year was quite possibly the Dickin Medal for Gallantry to Rob the Parachuting Dog, who undertook over 20 parachute descents while serving with the SAS. It sold for a whopping £140,000 on behalf of Antrim man Basil Bayne, who donated the proceeds to the Taylor McNally Foundation in Antrim.
