They have sold almost everything you could think of this year, from collections of clowns, to cars, swords, diamonds, cabinets and clocks – but what was their favourite item? As auctioneers celebrate what many say has been a good year for sales, with some returning to live auctions for the first time since the Covid pandemic, we ask some to name their favourite item sold in 2025.
Paintings feature strongly in their choices, but there are also a few surprises, with a 1961 Morris Minor car and Japanese woodblock prints included in the mix.
The Morris Minor came from the estate from the late Roma Peare, who lived in Kinsale, Co Cork, but was originally from the Tipperary-based Knox family. When selling the contents of her house, which also included items from her family, who owned Brittas Castle near Thurles, Denis Lynes, of Lynes & Lynes, included a 1961 Morris Minor four-door car in the sale.
The first lot in its April auction, it was a one-owner car, with 55,000 miles on the clock. For sale with a guide of €2,500-€3,500, the car subsequently sold for €3,000.
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During the viewing, the car received lots of attention and brought memories back to many people, says Lynes.
“To find a one-owner car from 1961 is quite rare and many people in Kinsale knew this car quite well. The car was bought by a gentleman in Co Wicklow, and I believe he is going to fully restore it.”
In May, Adam’s sold a very rare enamel and diamond Serpenti bracelet watch, made by Bulgari in the 1960s.
According to Claire-Laurence Mestrallet, director of jewellery at the auction house, it was sourced from a private client in Rome, who was clearing her mother’s house after her death.
All the other jewellery – which Adam’s also sold – was in the safe, but the snake was found hidden in a sock. Although her daughter remembered her mother wearing it years ago, she had not seen it in years, and so it was a surprise to find it again.
“I was particularly excited to present this piece at Adam’s, as none had ever appeared at auction in Ireland, nor would [one] be available to buy in any shops here,” says Mestrallet. “On a personal note, the Serpenti bracelet watch is one that I have always been very fond of, and hoped to get in my auction one day.”
Estimated between €40,000-60,000 and after a fierce bidding battle between international collectors and an Irish bidder, the piece fetched €117,500.
Snake motifs date back to Egyptian, Chinese, Greek and Roman times, but the Italian jewellery house Bulgari caused quite a sensation when they introduced this bracelet.
The Last General Absolution of the Munsters at Rue du Bois, by Fortunino Matania (1881-1963), an Italian artist, is the work chosen by Eva Cadars from Whyte’s.
The painting, which sold through Whyte’s in March of this year, holds an important historical significance as it is the only existing version of an earlier work made by Matania, and later destroyed during the second World War.
The original painting was made at the request of the widow of the battalion’s commanding officer. This copy was painted by Matania in 1919 at the request of Alfred Robinson, whose son Edmund fought in the catastrophic Battle of Aubers on the western front and returned home safely.
Matania, acclaimed for his graphic and realistic images of trench warfare, here depicts Fr Francis Gleeson, a Jesuit priest from Tipperary, addressing the assembled 2nd Battalion, Royal Munster Fusiliers, at a roadside shrine, where he gave the general absolution on the eve of the Battle of Aubers Ridge. The following day, one in six soldiers was killed.
The painting had an estimate of €30,000-€40,000 and sold for €61,000.
Composition, Evie Hone
For Skibbereen based Morgan O’Driscoll, the Evie Hone oil painting, Composition by Evie Hone, is one of his favourite paintings sold in 2024.
Hone (1894-1955) was an Irish painter and stained glass artist who was considered to be an early pioneer of cubism. She was one of the founders of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art.
Peter Murray, former director of the Crawford Gallery, described the work as follows in the catalogue notes: “Although at first glance, Composition is a resolutely non-figurative painting – with arcs and segments of yellow, green, light brown and red – there is an area that suggests a Madonna and Child within the intricately juxtaposed colour pattern. And flanking the central motif, curved areas of colour might be read as onlookers”.
The painting, which had previously sold at auction at deVeres in 2010, and Adam’s in 2021, had an estimate of €50,000-€70,000. It attained a hammer price of €125,000 on April 9th.
For Rory Guthrie, director at deVeres, when something passes through the rooms of the auction house that ends up hanging in the National Gallery, “it is always extra special”.
“This year we were lucky to offer two such works – one of which was Roderic O’Conor’s Flowers, Bottle and Two Jugs, an important oil on canvas. The oil painting, which was recently unveiled at the National Gallery of Ireland, had an estimate of €120,000-€180,000 and was sold prior to the auction.
“It is a major work by one of Ireland’s great painters. Only a short stroll from my office, I’ll be a regular viewer.”
Guthrie also chooses a piece of furniture by Irish designer Eileen Gray, one of the 20th-century’'s most influential designers.
“In a saturated furniture market full of mass-produced copies made to order, it has been encouraging to see the strong interest in original pieces,” he says.
The Transat chair, which was originally called Le Fauteuil Transatlantique, was inspired by deckchairs on transatlantic ships. Gray designed it in about 1928 for use on the terrace of her iconic modernist house, E1027 at Roquebrune Cap Martin in France. It had an estimate of €3,000-€5,000 and sold for €10,500 to a private collector.
For Michael Sheppard of Laois-based Sheppards, one of his “most thrilling sales” this year were a series of four extraordinary woodblock prints by the 20th-century Japanese painter and woodblock print maker, Hiroshi Yoshida.
“I think about these prints, which travelled from Japan to an oriental art dealer in London, where our client from west Cork purchased them. The prints – which are part of Yoshida’s Seta Island Sea series from 1926 – then travelled to a gallery in New York, which purchased them at our auction in April. With a combined presale estimate of €24,000, they ultimately fetched €27,000. This sale underscores the global reach and enduring appeal of exceptional art.”
What did it sell for?
Horsemen, Jack Butler Yeats
Estimate €400,000-€800,000
Hammer price €400,000
Auction house Adam’s
The Christening Party, Aloysius O’Kelly
Estimate €10,000-€15,000
Hammer price €26,000
Auction house Adam’s
The Turquoise Sea, Mimizan, John Lavery
Estimate €60,000-€80,000
Hammer price €58,000
Auction house Whyte’s
Girl Feeding a Tortoise Cat, Walter Osborne
Estimate €60,000-€80,000
Hammer price €60,000
Auction house Whyte’s
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