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Lot 262
Four Boxed Corgi Diecast 1:50 Scale 'Nine Double Nine' Fire Service Vehicles'. # cc13003 Dennis F125/Simon Snorkel SS263 Hydraulic Platform Merseyside Fire Brigade, #cc13005 Dennis F12 Side pump Escape city of Coventry Fire Service, # cc100307 AEC Turntable Ladder Perth, Western Australia, # cc10310 AEC Turntable Ladder - Wiltshire Fire Brigade
Lot 173
Six Boxed Hasegawa 1:72nd Scale Plastic Aircraft Kits, F-4F Phantom II 'JG71 Special Painting', FIA-18F Super Hornet, #AD-6 Skyrider 'First of the Fleet', F-117A Night Hawk 'Star and Stripes', F-86D Sabre Dog) 'Usafe' and J-350 Draken 'Austrian A.F. Farewell Special'. All appear complete with instructions and decals, although buyer should assure themselves of this.
Lot 188
Six Boxed 1:48th Scale Plastic Aircraft Kits, Hasegawa #09439 Kawasaki Ki100, #09418 F4U-5 Corsair 'Cag Bird', #09350 P-51D Mustang 'Miss America' and #09074 Kawanishi N1Kz-J Shidenkei. With Tamiya Nakajima Ki-84-1A Hayate and Vought F4U-1D Corsair. All kits appear complete with instructions and decals, although buyers should assure themselves of this.
Lot 114
Nine Boxed Italeri 1:72nd Scale Plastic Aircraft Kits, AC-119K Gunship, B26K Counter Invader, B-57G Night Hawk, Grumman F-14A Tomcat Plus, B57B Canberra, Antonov AN-Z 'Colt', V-22 Osprey, FIA-18F Super Hornet, EF-2000 Typhoon. Together with 1:200th scale C-141A. All kits appear complete with instructions and decals, although buyers should assure themselves of this.
Lot 163
Eight Boxed 1:72nd Scale Revell Plastic Civilian Helicopter Kits, #04486 Eurocopter EC145 ADAC/REGA, #04422 Eurocopter EC145VIP, #04451 Medicopter 117, #04408 MBB BK117 Space Ship, #04451 East Anglian Air Ambulance, #04457 EC-135 ADAC/OAMTC. All pre listed kits appear complete with all parts, instructions and decal sheets but buyer should assure themselves of the completeness of the kits. #04465 MBB BK117 Pegasus appears complete, some parts loose, with decals, no instructions (downloadable). Buyer should assure themselves of completeness of the kit. #04461 Bell 412 KLU/RAF appears complete with all parts and decals sheet, no instructions (downloadable). Buyer should assure themselves of completeness of the kit.
Lot 129
Ten Boxed Academy 1:72nd Scale Plastic Aircraft Kits, F-8P Crusader, Lockheed F-117 'Ghost of Baghdad', F86E Sabre 'El Diablo', Lockheed Ventura II, F86F Sabre, Lockheed U-2 Dragon Lady, A-10A Iraq, FZH-3/-4 Banshee, Dassault Super Etendard and F86E Sabre 'El Diablo' - sealed. All kits appear complete with instructions and decals, although buyer should assure themselves of this.
Lot 133
Nine Boxed Hasegawa 1:72nd Scale Plastic Aircraft Kits, #00180 Thunderbolt MK.II 'Royal Air Force', #851 Messerschmitt ME262A, #51329 SBD-3 Dauntless, #51341 Spitfire MK.VIII, #00452 Mitsubishi A6MS Zero Fighter (Zeke) Type 52, #52073 Messerschmitt BF1096G-6/G-14 'Hartmann', #51335 Kawanishi N1K1 Kyofu (Rex) 'Early Type', #52053 Nakajima A6M2-N Type 2 Fighter Sea Plane (Rufe) '934th Flying Group', #503 Kawasaki Ki-61-I Hien (Tony). All kits appear complete with all parts (some loose) decal sheets and instructions. Buyer should assure themselves for completeness of these kits.
Lot 22
A Radio Controlled Overwing Type Scale Model Aircraft, fitted with an O.S FS series surpass 26 glow engine, Hi-tec receiver, throttle servo and Aileron servos, with fuel tank and Hi-tec laser four channel transmitter, wooden construction with film covered wing, for restoration, fuselage length approximately 115cms, wingspan approximately 160cms, with undercarriage.
Lot 205
Eight Window Boxed Diecast Vehicles, of varying scales and manufacturers including Solido Double Decker Bus modified by Louaine Motorbus Models (code three), #91848 Corgi Metrobus 'Yorkshire Evening Post', #96960 Corgi VW Van Bosch, exclusive first editions 1:76th scale #16104 Leyland PD2 Highbridge 'Leeds Transport Yorkshire Post.
Lot 21
A Radio Controlled Scale Model of a Spitfire Fighter Aircraft, fitted with an MDS 25 glow engine, Sanwa receiver, throttle and Aileron Servos, fuel tank and exhaust with Sanwa van guard four channel transmitter, fuselage length approximately 93cms, wingspan approximately 107cms, largely wood and foam board construction.
Lot 20
A Radio Controlled Kit Built R.T.F Black Horse Super Air Scale Aircraft Model, fitted with an Airtek SC 46 two stroke glow engine, five throttle and Alleron servo's and fuel tank, wood and foam construction, for restoration, fuselage length approximately 120cms with a wingspan of approximately 155cms.
Lot 101
Rowan Gillespie (b.1953)The Devil's AdvocateBronze, 34cm high (13½'')Signed 6/9, 1987Provenance: Acquired from the Solomon Gallery; from the collection of the late Gillian Bowler.The Devil's Advocate is a detail from a sculpture Rowan made in 1985 for a Garden of Earthly Delights theme exhibition in Gallery Husstege, s'Hertogenbosch, Holland (birth place of Hieronymus Bosch).The full scale sculpture is illustrated on p.22 in Looking for Orion by Roger Kohn. The edition of this piece was a surprise sell-out when offered at the Solomon Gallery and Gallerie Hustege in 1987.Our thanks to the artist for his help in cataloguing this piece.
Lot 105
Basil Blackshaw HRHA RUA (1932-2016)Horse with Object IOil on linen canvas, 75 x 70cm (29½ x 27½'')Provenance: From the collection of the late Gillian Bowler.Exhibited: 'Basil Blackshaw Exhibition', Hendriks Gallery, September 1987, Catalogue No.23, where purchased.Horse and Object I, Horse and Object II, 1987Basil Blackshaw HRUA (1932-2016) was born in Glengormley but his family moved soon after to Boardmills, Co. Down. He studied at Art College in Belfast in the late 1940s. In 1951 Blackshaw was awarded a scholarship by the Committee for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts, to study in Paris. It was at this time that he encountered the work of a number of artists that were to have an enduring impact on his career. A major retrospective of Blackshaw’s work was held in 1974 at the Arts Council Gallery in Belfast, and another in 1995 was organised by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. The latter was exhibited at the Ormeau Baths, Royal Hibernian Academy, Crawford Municipal Gallery, and a selection of the works travelled to the United States for a further tour. In 2001 he was the recipient of the Glen Dimplex Award for a Sustained Contribution to the Visual Arts. He exhibited at the Ulster Museum, Belfast in 2002 and a monograph was published on the artist by Eamonn Mallie in 2003. In 2012 the Royal Hibernian Academy in conjunction with the F.E. McWilliam Gallery organised a substantial retrospective of the artist’s work entitled ‘Blackshaw at 80’. He was a member of Aosdana, RUA and Associate Member of the RHA. Jude Stephens, Blackshaw’s model for his life studies commented that the artist was more than just a painter; he was a “traditional countryman who was rooted in rural life. He was someone who connected effortlessly with the natural world and he lamented the pace of change in much of rural Ireland, especially in the areas that he loved and knew best.” (The Irish Times, May 9, 2016)Denis Bradley, a close friend of the artist has remarked; “I think that nature was caught, it wasn’t just observed by you, it was in your bones, in your genes, in all of your breathing and living and being - the horses and the dogs and the fowl, everything that you painted, ultimately the human beings. It was not an observation or a study, it just came - the gift was there, you put it in the paint, you put it on the canvas. And for that thank you.” (The Irish Times, May 9, 2016)Blackshaw insisted he did not work in series and hence works that are linked have not been planned in sequence. They were often created separately with other subjects and genres intervening. ‘Horse and Object I’ and ‘Horse and Object II’ are however as close to a series as paintings can come. There is continuity in compositional structure, palette, representation, treatment and scale. They are interesting as a pair certainly but can also be appreciated individually. There is a sense of floating forms evident and a somewhat flattened canvas in both works. ‘Horse and Object I’ has a horse placed centrally in the lower ground of the canvas. He stands at ease before a square object in front of him. It is highly likely that the horse subject is Dolly (depicted in a later painting by name); one can see her chestnut hue, relatively slender form, white markings on her nose, and a sense of her white fetlocks. The artist is not aiming at an animal portrait but rather an explorative study of the two forms depicted. The surroundings to the forms are beautifully captured in pleasing pastel shades. The artist explained his compositional approach in his work to Brian McAvera; “I like…the feeling that it was a piece of work, an exploration, not a work made for exhibition.” (Irish Arts Review, Winter 2002, p67). In ‘Horse and Object II’ the compositional structure is very similar to its’ precedent yet the entire palette has been brightened and forms are now somewhat abstracted. The horse appears more grounded at the base of the canvas yet it is less life-like and more symbolic. This is due, largely, to the elongation of the horse’s face. In these works there is evidence of the artist’s method in creating his landscape compositions; ‘Blackshaw plays two and three dimensional space against each other to make a tense space like an imaginary rubber band between the foreground and background.’ (Frances Ruane, 1981). This tendency may come from the artist’s admiration of Cezanne as he ‘wanted, like him, to express the “pull and tension which is the whole life of art”. (Ruane, 1981). Mike Catto has also written about Cezanne’s influence; ‘The restraints and gradations which his palette achieved from 1967 onwards follows Cezanne’s advice to Emile Bernard “to begin lightly with almost neutral tones. Then one must proceed steadily climbing the scale and tightening the chromatics.” (Art in Ulster 2, 1977, p17). The early work of Sir Alfred Munnings his sketches and wood panels of horses were of interest to Blackshaw. Of greater importance, however, was Franz Marc’s ‘Grazing Horses IV’ (The Red Horses), 1911. It has been cited by the artist as ‘the only horse painting that had an influence on me.’ (Irish Arts Review, Winter 2002, p59). Indeed such an artist as Marc, through his expressionism, symbolism and primacy of colour, has had a clear impact on Blackshaw in these works and others where reference to the dominant colour enters the realm of the title; ‘Blue Nude’, ‘Brown Head’, ‘White Landscape’, and ‘Pink Dog’. If one were to select a painting that epitomised the closest tribute to Franz Marc it would be another horse painting entitled ‘Dolly’ 1989 which was executed a few years after the ‘Horse and Object’ works. Mercy Hunter, writing for an Arts Council exhibition catalogue in 1974 stated; ‘He especially admires Rothko because of the apparent ease of his achievement - “he has the pull and push to fill a great area; his sense of scale is everything.” However, he is not deceived by the seeming simplicity of Rothko’s works. He recognises draughtsmanship as a fundamental discipline…“you must be able to feel if a shape is right or wrong and every shape must have its own identity.” (Hunter, 1974). This sense of shapes and forms with their own inherent identity is certainly in evidence in the ‘Horse and Object’ paintings and that crafting of forms placed on the canvas is enhanced by the primacy of colour. Another definitive aspect to the works is their ability to bring a smile to the viewer’s face. They are pleasing both in terms of quirky composition and aesthetics; ‘One element is quite inescapable in many of these idiosyncratic paintings - deep and genuine humour, a quality often found in painters as private people (including, most definitely, Blackshaw himself) but surprisingly rarely in their work.’ (Brian Fallon in Blackshaw, 2003). One final observation on these works is their resistance to definitive classification in genre terms and this is in evidence throughout the artist’s oeuvre. Brian Fallon has written on Blackshaw’s unique approach and his propensity to go beyond defined genres; ‘There is also a large and very special category that stands outside all these and is entirely sui generis. It might roughly be defined as the special “Blackshaw subject,” meaning (very broadly) something quirky, unpredictable, occasionally ultra-personal or private, often based on sights that are familiar and everyday, or on quite non-descript things that just happen to have caught his eye or fancy and are re-shaped by his alert imagination. Some are almost epigrammatic in their visual wit, while others are lyrical or even poignant.’ (Blackshaw edited by Eamonn Mallie, Nicholson and Bass, Belfast, 2003) Marianne O’Kane Boal, April 2017
Lot 106
Basil Blackshaw HRHA RUA (1932-2016)Horse with Object IIOil on canvas, 75 x 70.2cm (29½ x 27½'')Provenance: From the collection of the late Gillian Bowler.Exhibited: 'Basil Blackshaw Exhibition', Hendriks Gallery, September 1987, where purchased; 'Basil Blackshaw Retrospective' travelling exhibition, Art Council of Northern Ireland; Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast, November/December 1995; Model Art and Niland Gallery, February 1996; the RHA Gallery, January 1997; Literature: Basil Blackshaw: Painter, by Brian Ferran 1995, Full Page illustration Pg114Horse and Object I, Horse and Object II, 1987Basil Blackshaw HRUA (1932-2016) was born in Glengormley but his family moved soon after to Boardmills, Co. Down. He studied at Art College in Belfast in the late 1940s. In 1951 Blackshaw was awarded a scholarship by the Committee for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts, to study in Paris. It was at this time that he encountered the work of a number of artists that were to have an enduring impact on his career. A major retrospective of Blackshaw’s work was held in 1974 at the Arts Council Gallery in Belfast, and another in 1995 was organised by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. The latter was exhibited at the Ormeau Baths, Royal Hibernian Academy, Crawford Municipal Gallery, and a selection of the works travelled to the United States for a further tour. In 2001 he was the recipient of the Glen Dimplex Award for a Sustained Contribution to the Visual Arts. He exhibited at the Ulster Museum, Belfast in 2002 and a monograph was published on the artist by Eamonn Mallie in 2003. In 2012 the Royal Hibernian Academy in conjunction with the F.E. McWilliam Gallery organised a substantial retrospective of the artist’s work entitled ‘Blackshaw at 80’. He was a member of Aosdana, RUA and Associate Member of the RHA. Jude Stephens, Blackshaw’s model for his life studies commented that the artist was more than just a painter; he was a “traditional countryman who was rooted in rural life. He was someone who connected effortlessly with the natural world and he lamented the pace of change in much of rural Ireland, especially in the areas that he loved and knew best.” (The Irish Times, May 9, 2016)Denis Bradley, a close friend of the artist has remarked; “I think that nature was caught, it wasn’t just observed by you, it was in your bones, in your genes, in all of your breathing and living and being - the horses and the dogs and the fowl, everything that you painted, ultimately the human beings. It was not an observation or a study, it just came - the gift was there, you put it in the paint, you put it on the canvas. And for that thank you.” (The Irish Times, May 9, 2016)Blackshaw insisted he did not work in series and hence works that are linked have not been planned in sequence. They were often created separately with other subjects and genres intervening. ‘Horse and Object I’ and ‘Horse and Object II’ are however as close to a series as paintings can come. There is continuity in compositional structure, palette, representation, treatment and scale. They are interesting as a pair certainly but can also be appreciated individually. There is a sense of floating forms evident and a somewhat flattened canvas in both works. ‘Horse and Object I’ has a horse placed centrally in the lower ground of the canvas. He stands at ease before a square object in front of him. It is highly likely that the horse subject is Dolly (depicted in a later painting by name); one can see her chestnut hue, relatively slender form, white markings on her nose, and a sense of her white fetlocks. The artist is not aiming at an animal portrait but rather an explorative study of the two forms depicted. The surroundings to the forms are beautifully captured in pleasing pastel shades. The artist explained his compositional approach in his work to Brian McAvera; “I like…the feeling that it was a piece of work, an exploration, not a work made for exhibition.” (Irish Arts Review, Winter 2002, p67). In ‘Horse and Object II’ the compositional structure is very similar to its’ precedent yet the entire palette has been brightened and forms are now somewhat abstracted. The horse appears more grounded at the base of the canvas yet it is less life-like and more symbolic. This is due, largely, to the elongation of the horse’s face. In these works there is evidence of the artist’s method in creating his landscape compositions; ‘Blackshaw plays two and three dimensional space against each other to make a tense space like an imaginary rubber band between the foreground and background.’ (Frances Ruane, 1981). This tendency may come from the artist’s admiration of Cezanne as he ‘wanted, like him, to express the “pull and tension which is the whole life of art”. (Ruane, 1981). Mike Catto has also written about Cezanne’s influence; ‘The restraints and gradations which his palette achieved from 1967 onwards follows Cezanne’s advice to Emile Bernard “to begin lightly with almost neutral tones. Then one must proceed steadily climbing the scale and tightening the chromatics.” (Art in Ulster 2, 1977, p17). The early work of Sir Alfred Munnings his sketches and wood panels of horses were of interest to Blackshaw. Of greater importance, however, was Franz Marc’s ‘Grazing Horses IV’ (The Red Horses), 1911. It has been cited by the artist as ‘the only horse painting that had an influence on me.’ (Irish Arts Review, Winter 2002, p59). Indeed such an artist as Marc, through his expressionism, symbolism and primacy of colour, has had a clear impact on Blackshaw in these works and others where reference to the dominant colour enters the realm of the title; ‘Blue Nude’, ‘Brown Head’, ‘White Landscape’, and ‘Pink Dog’. If one were to select a painting that epitomised the closest tribute to Franz Marc it would be another horse painting entitled ‘Dolly’ 1989 which was executed a few years after the ‘Horse and Object’ works. Mercy Hunter, writing for an Arts Council exhibition catalogue in 1974 stated; ‘He especially admires Rothko because of the apparent ease of his achievement - “he has the pull and push to fill a great area; his sense of scale is everything.” However, he is not deceived by the seeming simplicity of Rothko’s works. He recognises draughtsmanship as a fundamental discipline…“you must be able to feel if a shape is right or wrong and every shape must have its own identity.” (Hunter, 1974). This sense of shapes and forms with their own inherent identity is certainly in evidence in the ‘Horse and Object’ paintings and that crafting of forms placed on the canvas is enhanced by the primacy of colour. Another definitive aspect to the works is their ability to bring a smile to the viewer’s face. They are pleasing both in terms of quirky composition and aesthetics; ‘One element is quite inescapable in many of these idiosyncratic paintings - deep and genuine humour, a quality often found in painters as private people (including, most definitely, Blackshaw himself) but surprisingly rarely in their work.’ (Brian Fallon in Blackshaw, 2003). One final observation on these works is their resistance to definitive classification in genre terms and this is in evidence throughout the artist’s oeuvre. Brian Fallon has written on Blackshaw’s unique approach and his propensity to go beyond defined genres; ‘There is also a large and very special category that stands outside all these and is entirely sui generis. It might roughly be defined as the special “Blackshaw subject,” meaning (very broadly) something quirky, unpredictable, occasionally ultra-personal or private, often based on sights that are familiar and everyday, or on quite non-descript things that just happen to have caught his eye or fancy and are re-shaped by his alert imagination. Some are almost epigrammatic in their visual wit, while others are lyrical or even poignant.’ (Blackshaw edited by Eamonn Mallie, Nicholson and Bass, Belfast, 2003) Mariann
Lot 107
Basil Blackshaw HRHA RUA (1932-2016)Head of a TravellerOil on canvas, 61 x 45cm (24 x 17¾'')Signed and dated (19)'84 versoProvenance: From the collection of the late Gillian Bowler.Basil Blackshaw HRUA (1932-2016) was born in Glengormley but his family moved soon after to Boardmills, Co. Down. He studied at Art College in Belfast in the late 1940s. In 1951 Blackshaw was awarded a scholarship by the Committee for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts, to study in Paris. It was at this time that he encountered the work of a number of artists that were to have an enduring impact on his career. A major retrospective of Blackshaw’s work was held in 1974 at the Arts Council Gallery in Belfast, and another in 1995 was organised by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. The latter was exhibited at the Ormeau Baths, Royal Hibernian Academy, Crawford Municipal Gallery, and a selection of the works travelled to the United States for a further tour. In 2001 he was the recipient of the Glen Dimplex Award for a Sustained Contribution to the Visual Arts. He exhibited at the Ulster Museum, Belfast in 2002 and a monograph was published on the artist by Eamonn Mallie in 2003. In 2012 the Royal Hibernian Academy in conjunction with the F.E. McWilliam Gallery organised a substantial retrospective of the artist’s work entitled ‘Blackshaw at 80’. He was a member of Aosdana, RUA and Associate Member of the RHA. ‘Head of a Traveller’ painted in 1984 is quite different from much of Blackshaw’s figurative work and portraiture. This work demonstrates a relatively broad palette compared to that generally found in the artist’s practice. It is almost as if Blackshaw has sculpted the head from earth and clay, such are the modelling marks that could have as easily been made with the hands; fingers and thumbs, as with the brush. The subject’s visage is characterful in its rendering; he has one blue eye, one brown, a prominent nose, dark shadowed chin and long unkempt jet-black hair. The painting is powerful and memorable and it portrays a depth of character in the man portrayed that clearly left an intense impression on the artist. In 1985, Mike Catto wrote; ‘The superb Heads of Travellers were far from lovely - no stage Irish rustics these; instead the artist gave us stripped down direct faces. There was an effect almost of a blurred out-of-focus photograph in these faces, a sensation which has echoed in many of his figures over the years.’ (Aer Lingus Cara Magazine, 1985). While Catto is certainly accurate in his description of this group of works, this work ‘Head of a Traveller’ stands apart from the others. It gives the impression, for a number of reasons, that it was the first portrait the artist produced on this theme; It is more detailed, expressionist, and demonstrates a broader palette; although the man’s face is turned to the side, his eyes look directly at the viewer in a confrontational stare; in terms of connection of expression, it is akin to Roderic O’Conor’s ‘Breton Peasant Woman Knitting’ 1893, in the intensity of execution and striped treatment of the corduroy jacket the traveller wears - this handling contrasts with that of the other works in the group that feel closer to Barrie Cooke in palette and finishing. Indeed it stands apart to such a degree that it seems closer to other works by Blackshaw than these portraits on the same subject. Dr Fionna Barber felt that; ‘The expressionist brushstroke never totally describes the faces of his sitters; rather it suggests a pictorial equivalent to their presence.’ (F.E. McWilliam Gallery, 2012, p28). When writing about an earlier work entitled ‘The Field’ by Blackshaw, Brian Fallon commented on the ‘uninhibited brushwork and almost Expressionist vehemence’ of the painting. (Obituary, The Irish Times, May 6, 2016). These attributes can also be seen in ‘Head of a Traveller’ painted some thirty years later. One of the defining aspects of Blackshaw’s work is the inherent challenge of the struggle of articulation. He was an artist who embraced this struggle as necessary and fundamental to the process; ‘...This is a man who has learnt that he was once too close to his subject matter; a man who would love to be an abstract painter but is not; a man who can make scale, surface and the emotional temperature of colour coalesce; a man who has learnt to avoid the slick or clever brushstroke, or the purely descriptive brushstroke in favour of a painter’s marks.’ (Brian McAvera, Irish Arts Review, Winter 2002, p59). This portrait of an unnamed traveller is the epitome of the coalescence of ‘scale surface and the emotional temperature of colour’ and it has certainly been informed by the artist’s vision and his unique ‘painter’s marks.’Marianne O’Kane Boal, April 2017
Lot 35
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957)Early Morning, Cliffony (1941)Oil on panel, 23 x 36cm (9 x 14¼'')SignedExhibited: RHA Annual Exhibition 1942, Catalogue No.187; Jack B. Yeats Exhibition, York City Art Gallery, 1960, presented as part of 'The York Festival', Catalogue No. 22; Images in Yeats Exhibition, Cente de Congrés, Monaco June 1990; The National Gallery of Ireland July 1990, Catalogue No. 26.Provenance: Sold to Mr & Mrs Michael Burn in 1942; and later in the collection of Miss Harnett; sold in Christie’s Irish Sale, Dublin, May 1989, where purchased; from the collection of the late Gillian Bowler.Literature: Jack B. Yeats: An appreciation and Interpretation by Thomas MacGreevy, Dublin 1945, p.31/2; Images in Yeats (1990) by Hilary Pyle, illustrated p.53, plate 26.Jack B. Yeats: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, by Hilary Pyle, Andre Deutsch 1992, Catalogue No.518, p.477Yeats painted this small vibrant work in 1941 at the beginning of one of the most productive decades of his career. It depicts the countryside near the coastal Sligo town of Cliffony. According to Hilary Pyle, the view is looking eastwards away from the town at the dramatic Dartry mountain range which includes such famous peaks as Ben Bulben and Truskmore. The Bunduff river, which marks the border between Connaught and Ulster, is surging through the foreground. On the extreme rights its banks are lined with saplings. The paint is applied with great variety of technique, from the sketchy dark leaves of the trees to the sculptured cliff faces of the mountains. The palette contrasts pale blues and mauves with bright reds and yellows. This and the dynamic way in which the forms are depicted creates an animated surface, suggestive of the energy of nature. The elements of rocky mountain, open sky and fast-flowing river are subtly demarcated by the lush colours of the grass, trees and vegetation of the land. The countryside of north Sligo appears as a fluid, constantly changing vista. Pyle has suggested that Yeats made pure landscapes like Early Morning, Cliffony, as an alternative and perhaps as a respite from his creation of large-scale fantasy works such as Tinkers Encampment, Blood of Abel, (1940, Private Collection) and Two Travellers, (1943, Tate). The production of both kinds of painting flourished in his oeuvre of the 1940s. Both refer to the West of Ireland and particularly to Sligo. The latter was closely connected to Yeats’s childhood, the memories of which formed a crucial source for his painting at this later stage in his life. Sligo also forms the backdrop to the myths and legends of ancient Ireland such as those associated with Queen Medbh and Diarmuid and Grainne whose stories are connected to specific locations in the Dartry mountains. Landscapes such as Early Morning, Cliffony were painted in the studio from memory, sometimes aided by earlier sketches made on the spot. They can be understood as settings for human events and affairs both real and imaginary. But as Thomas MacGreevy put it, ‘With Yeats, the landscape is as real as the figures. It has its own character as they have theirs’.Early Morning, Cliffony, with its yellow flecks of morning light and the vibrancy and movement of the foliage, sky and water is an important example of this type of painting. It expresses the energy and drama of this terrain as the artist remembers it and recreates it. On seeing the work at the RHA in 1942, MacGreevy described it as a small gem of pure landscape. It featured in the 1990 exhibition, Images in Yeats, shown at Monaco and the National Gallery of Ireland, as a quintessential example of Yeats’s pure landscape paintings.
Lot 55
Albert Irvin RA (1922-2015)Glenmore (1985)Acrylic on canvas, 153 X 213 cm (60 X 84”)Signed and dated (19)’85 versoProvenance: From the collection of the late Gillian Bowler.Exhibited : “Albert Irvin Exhibition: Paintings and prints 1980 - 1995”, RHA Gallagher Gallery, Dublin Nov/Dec 1995, Catalogue No. 7.Literature: Albert Irvin Exhibition catalogue 1995, full page illustration p.27.Albert Irvin grew up in London until he was evacuated to Northhampton following the outbreak of World War II in 1939. He won a scholarship to Northampton School of Art in 1940, but his only formal education as an artist was disrupted by conscription a year later. He became a navigator for the RAF and flew on bombing missions into Germany as a member of 236 Squadron. He returned to London after the War and immediately began a precarious career, supported in this by his artist wife, Betty, whom he had met as a student and by working as a screen printer on Laura Ashley’s first fabric designs. Associated with the Saint Ives’ painters Terry Frost and Peter Lanyon in the 1950s and 60s, his career as a painter began to come together after he had been exposed to shows of American Abstract Expressionism in the 1960s, when he also began to teach part-time in Goldsmith’s College, London. His large scale, flamboyant paintings became popular only in the 1980s and 90s, when he was in his sixties, and when he was a prominent figure in reviving British Painting. Bert, as he was known to his many friends, was recognized in Ireland from the early 1980s when he was included in ROSC 1984 and given a solo exhibition at the Butler Gallery a year later.Irvin’s abstract paintings are thoroughly informed by his urban background, although his vision must also have been influenced by seeing the cities of Germany from the air and through the prism of navigational maps. As he put it, ’The traversing of the canvas with a loaded brush stands in direct relation to the traversing of the spaces in which I live and have my being’. Even their titles bear witness to this. From ‘Soho’ (IMMA, Collection), to ‘Battersea’, ‘Piccadilly’, and ‘Clapham’, they spell out a sense of the energy and bustle he found as he travelled between his home and his studio. The architectural nature of cities explains the importance of the rectangle and the square for him, as he points out they echo the ‘given of his world’. Oval canvases attracted him but he found that they dominated the painting. The more static rectangle gave him the scope to play off the energy in the painting against its outer edge, and that energy is the subject of his work.‘Glenmore’ is a little different. The title and date suggests that it was prompted by his visit to Kilkenny and rural Ireland in 1985, although painted in his London studio. “I don’t make use of direct appearances so there is no way in which I’ll produce holiday snaps”, (1) he told Peter Hill, so ‘Glenmore’ offers nothing superficially descriptive of the place it references in the title, it remind us, instead, of Irvin’s love of music and his belief that art is most effective when communicating through a language of abstract form and rhythms. Thus the open composition employed in ‘Glenmore’, the more expansive areas of yellow, when compared to his busier, urban paintings, suggest a relaxed lyricism. The spatial relationships and softer open curvilinear marks here speak of ease and pleasure. Irvin continued to visit Ireland on numerous occasions with Betty, was given a retrospective exhibition at the RHA in 1995, to which this painting was lent, and even curated an exhibition at IMMA in 1991, dedicated to his friend, the Irish artist, Tim Mara. He died at the age of 92 in 2015, painting right up to his death. He is survived by his wife Betty and their daughters.Catherine Marshall, April 2017(1) Albert Irvin, interviewed by Peter Hill, in 'Albert Irvin', Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, 1985.
Lot 56
Albert Irvin RA (1922-2015)Tanza (1986)Acrylic on canvas, 152.5 X 183 cm (60 X 72”) Signed and dated (19)’86 versoProvenance: From the collection of the late Gillian Bowler.Exhibited: Albert Irvin Exhibition”, The Hendriks Gallery, Dublin 1986, where purchased by Gillian Bowler.‘Tanza’ (1986), more compact and tighter in its organization than ‘Glenmore’, is also expressive of Albert Irvin’s belief in the power of abstract shapes to convey feeling more intensively than representation. Music, which he saw as the embodiment of this quality was deeply important to him and his taste embraced classical musicians like Rostropovich, but also experimental composers like Morton Feldman. Through his abstract painting he strove for the immediacy of communication with the spectator that music invariably provides. Like Kandinsky, he believed that both art forms employ a language ‘about the world’ rather than ‘of’ it.The basic structural elements in ‘Tanza’ come from a well-tried and tested group, - a strong diagonal, used alone or in slightly varying parallel groupings, often bridged or intersected by a more horizontal one. These are generally accompanied by a range of minor motifs, such as chevrons, quatrefoils, flower head or star-like shapes and circles. Flat areas of colour are interrupted and articulated by splashes and droplets of colour deposited by a flick of a loaded brush or sprayed out from a squeegee. Irvin often arranges torn and cut-out coloured paper onto sections of the canvas to try out colour arrangements and these add a sense of layering, of past and present, before and after to the paintings, along with the idea of constant movement, to and fro, traverses and reverses. The origins of his marks and motifs tell an interesting story too. One of the most powerful influences on Albert Irvin’s work is a celebrated war painting, ‘Battle of Britain’, 1941 (Imperial War Museum, London) by Paul Nash in which the frenzy of the battle is revealed only in the tangle of smoke trails left in the sky by the fighter planes. Irvin points to this abstract tangle as the most powerful evidence of what has gone on during the engagement, and used similar methods to trace physical journeys, their speed, direction, strength and so on in his own work. Similarly, the abstract language of Australian Aboriginal art to record their history offered him a model for his own formal development, but he is careful not to borrow from other artists or cultures unless he has shared their cultural experience. On a visit to Venice in the 1990s he saw carved quatrefoils on the Doge’s Palace and used them widely in his later paintings.Albert Irvin was a tall man and he tended to paint on a grand scale which, combined with his zest for colour, makes his work particularly popular for hospitals, universities and other public buildings around the world. But he was also an expert print-maker, working just as comfortably in that medium, with considerably smaller compositions. Catherine Marshall April 2017
Lot 435
A large display map of ancient and modern Israel with larger scale corresponding maps of Jerusalem, all within a mount covered with Israeli postage stamps including the early issues. 59 x 49cm. together with a print of a 19th. century layouts of "The Camp of the Israelites according to Reyherus and Lamy", 21x35cm. Both in good condition, the print copying losses from the original off the left hand margin.
Lot 375
WELL MADE SCALE MODEL OF THE TRADITIONAL LUXURY STEAM/DIESEL YACHT 'LADY MARGARET', a model based on the yacht 'Virginia', built by G.L. Watson of Glasgow in 1930 for Major Stephen Courtauld, perspex display case, the model 125cm overall.(B.P. 24% incl. VAT) CONDITION REPORT: Appearing in good original condition.
Lot 371
LARGE EARLY 20TH CENTURY WOODEN POND YACHT 'THE IPOH', labelled: '18 footer S.M.Y.C.'. The hull of planked construction and appearing to have two sets of masts and yards with canvas sails, weighted keel and operating rudder assembly on a fitted wooden, wheeled base. (S.M.Y.C. - possibly Solent Model Yacht Club). Including handwritten notes regarding scale dimensions of the boat, headed 'Solent Yacht Club' and dated: 1921. The hull measuring 136cm without bow sprit.(B.P. 24% incl. VAT) CONDITION REPORT: The sails are appearing poor and pretty rotten, the yards appearing useable with bone running blocks, the hull itself worn and aged but appearing good. Further details on request.
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