In the SALEROOMS

WHYTE’S

Traditionally, sculpture is a major investment — large to display and expensive to buy. This isn’t always the case. The selection of Irish and international art to be auctioned by Whyte’s this Monday includes some smaller works by wellknown Irish artists. At five inches high, Oisín Kelly’s bronze Family Group (est

€500 to €700) is a tiny but distinctive work by a muchloved Irish sculptor.

Similarly, Imogen Stuart’s exquisitely modelled

12-inch-high relief plaque of Saint

Brigid Feeding the Poor

(est €600 to €800, pictured).

The piece is similar in design to

Stuart’s commission for the opening of Saint Brigid’s National School, Castleknock, Dublin, installed on its gable wall in 1970.

On a larger scale, Niall O’Neill’s patinated bronze Viking II (est. €4,000 to

€6,000) measures 22 by 17 inches and reflects a different aspect of Irish heritage. There’s also an interesting bronze, 21 inches high, by the British artist Charles Robinson Sykes. Called Spirit of Ecstasy (€2,500 t0

€3,000) it’s an upscale version of the Rolls Royce hood ornament, also designed by Sykes. It’s one of a number of such statues made for display in Rolls Royce showrooms.

The sale also includes major paintings by artists including Louis le Brocquy, Paul Henry, and Nathaniel Hone. These will be on view at the RDS, Ballsbridge Dublin from tomorrow until Monday, from 10am to

6pm daily. See whytes.ie

DE VERES

Do Irish artists see the world differently? The art on your walls quite literally shapes the world around you, so what do we see when we live with art from Ireland? These questions, and others, will be addressed by the art critic Gemma Tipton as part of a talk on Seeing Ourselves: Living with Irish Art, which will take place at de Vere’s,

35 Kildare St, on Sunday, March 4 (12noon to 2pm). This event is part of a valuation day and will include a preview of some works that will go under the hammer at an April

17 auction. Email info@ deveres.ie to reserve a place.

ADAM’S

The contents of a townhouse on Fitzwilliam Place form the backbone of the forthcoming At Home sale at Adam’s, Stephen’s Green, which takes place this Sunday at 11.30am. The house was developed in the

1980s and lavishly decorated in a period style (with most of the furnishings supplied by the antique dealers Chantal O’Sullivan and Gerald Kenyon). They include a splendid Irish Regency giltwood convex mirror, surmounted by an eagle with outspread wings (est €4,000 to €6,000) and an — also eagle-themed — console table with a white marble top raised on the carved giltwood bird (est

€5,000 to €8,000). The sale also includes a spectacularly long William IV extending mahogany dining table. The sale is on public view today (10am to 5pm) and tomorrow (11am to 5pm) and the catalogue is online at adams.ie.