Choice is yours at August weekend auctions and art fairs

Des O’Sullivan reports on a three day flurry of art and antique events around the country this bank holiday.

With auctions in the west and south west and a big fair in the midlands, there is no need for auction junkies or collectors to feel lost or to suffer any symptoms of withdrawal over this August Bank Holiday weekend.

In Skibbereen there is viewing over the next four days for Morgan O’Driscoll’s Off the Wall online sale of Irish art.

‘Running Free’ by Margaret Egan at Morgan O’Driscoll’s online Irish art sale which runs to next Monday (€2,000-€3,000).

If you do not happen to be in the neighbourhood you can view it online.

Coral Strand, Connemara by Kenneth Webb at Morgan O’Driscoll’s online Irish art sale which continues until Monday (€2,500-€,3,500).

Bidding for this 320 lot auction, including sculpture, continues until next Tuesday at 6.30pm when selling begins.

Meanwhile, in Clifden, Dolan’s art and collectibles auction is on view today and tomorrow from 10 am to 7 pm and from 10 am to the start of the sale at 12.30 pm on Monday and Tuesday. In the Midlands, Hibernian Antique Fairs will be at the County Arms Hotel in Birr tomorrow and Monday as part of Birr Vintage Week with 30 stands and eight exhibitors from the Irish Antique Dealers’ Association.

A study for the poster ‘Imperial Airways Use Shell’ at Dolan’s Clifden Auction (€100-€200).

Add to this mix the festivals now in full swing around the country, such as the Skibbereen Arts Festival with its art trail and a guided tour of Fr Browne’s First World War photographs at the Hunt Museum in Limerick next Monday afternoon — not to mention the special summer exhibitions in galleries everywhere — and collectors will find plenty to interest them over the long weekend.

The selection of art at Morgan O’Driscoll ranges from Hughie O’Donoghue and Louis le Brocquy to Seán McSweeney and Mark O’Neill by way of Kenneth Webb, Markey Robinson, John Behan, Garry Trimble, Gerard Dillon and John Kingerlee.

‘Woman and Child before Cottages and Mountain’ by Markey Robinson at Morgan O’Driscoll’s online Irish art sale which runs until next Monday (€1,500-€2,500).

Dolan’s has Yeats’s Hobby Horses featured on these pages last weekend as well as collectibles ranging from a woven Belgian tapestry to a pair of Empire style, gilt metal candelabra.