Michael Collins' handkerchief among collector's items for auction
Linen The (framed) Handkerchief Of Death Collins At At Auctioned Michael His Be Had Time The Will Hegarty's
As the autumn season moves into high gear an impressive selection of highly collectible lots is available to collectors up and down the country next week.
A linen handkerchief Michael Collins had in his pocket on the evening of his death, on August 22, 1922, will be auctioned at Hegarty's in Bandon.
The framed white handkerchief comes up at the sale in Bandon on Wednesday evening (September 25).
It is accompanied by a manuscript letter in pencil signed by Collins’ brother Sean O Coileain dated August 31 to General Sean MacMahon asking him to "accept enclosed as a souvenir of Michael — in his pocket at time of death" .
The estimate is €10,000-€20,000. The provenance of the handkerchief is General Sean MacMahon and thence by descent.
The online sale features antique furniture, art, silver and jewellery including a Victorian emerald and diamond shamrock bar brooch.
Also featuring in auctions this week is a rediscovered painting by Frank O'Meara at James Adam and a Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit at Sheppard's Irish Auction House.
When the autumn art selling season kicks off at Adam's in Dublin on Wednesday evening (September 25) there will be much interest in painted in 1880 by Frank O'Meara. This small-scale transitional work by a short-lived though renowned Irish artist, unknown to researchers, has been in an Irish private collection for decades. It is estimated at €10,000-€15,000.
by Paul Henry is, at €120,000-€160,000, the most expensively estimated lot in this auction of 150 lots which features work by Jack B Yeats, Paul Henry, Colin Middleton, Louis le Brocquy, Sean Keating, Frank McKelvey, Gerard Dillon and Lilian Davidson. On the contemporary side, there is a large work painted in 2008 by Hughie O'Donoghue, of a Lancaster bomber during the Second World War setting the night sky ablaze (€30,000-€50,000). Paintings and sculptures by Neil Shawcross, Colin Harrison, Edward Delaney, Melanie le Brocquy, John Behan and many others add enormous interest to this sale.
The petrol-driven 1984 Rolls-Royce at Sheppard's Legacy of the Big House auction of more than 1600 lots next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (September 24, 25,26) in Durrow is estimated at €20,000-€30,000. A West Cork collection assembled in Ireland, Europe and America has a strong emphasis on 17th and 18th-century furniture.
An Irish 17th-century leather-bound marriage trunk with metal and stud decoration and domed lid, inscribed 1693, is certain to create interest. The estimate is €4,000-€6,000. An Italian 18th-century carved gilt console table with marble top is estimated at €3,000-€5,000.
There are Regency tables, an Irish oak rent table, a Grand Tour marble specimen table, a 17th-century walnut and crossbanded chest, a Cork Regency carved giltwood mirror and a pair of early 19th-century Viennese salon chairs among an appetising selection.
Curiosities include a 19th-century Cork ebony and ivory octant and a bronze model of a Venetian Lion of St Mark. There is a collection of fountain pens, jewellery from Atelier Jacobi, Stuttgart and art by James Arthur O'Connor, Guido Reni, Norah McGuinness, James Humbert Craig and others. Viewing starts in Durrow today.