In the SALEROOMS

FONSIE MEALY

A Rare Book & Collectors’ Sale conducted by Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers will take place at the Kilkenny Ormonde Hotel on October 3, commencing at 10.30am. Many of the books on offer are more valuable because they have been signed by the author. They include a copy of

The Commitments (inset, est €300 to €400), signed by author Roddy Doyle, and an author-signed copy of JP Donleavy’s The Ginger

Man (est €120 to €180). The exhibition also includes a large collection of books by and about James Joyce (est €1,200 to €1,800) and five unframed prints by Cuala Press: The Young St Patrick; St Patrick with Staff; St Patrick at Tara; Saint Brendan the Navigator,

and Saint Columba (est €300 to €400). For further details see fonsiemealy.ie.

WHYTE’S

The sculptor FE McWilliam (1909-1992) loved the ballet. Creatively, this found expression in his leg series. Between 1978 and 1987, he made a series of ballet-inspired pieces based on the female leg. One of these, Pas de Quarte (1981) is coming up for sale at Whyte’s auction of Irish & International Art which takes place in the RDS, Anglesea Road, on October 2at6pm.

It’s a sizeable piece of sculpture, just short of two metres high, and composed of eight disembodied legs, four above and four below. The feet are raised on points (the upper toes point to the ceiling; the lower ones are on the floor) and the legs are painted alternately black and white in a composition that suggests a pirouette. Estimated to sell between €5,000 and €7,000, the artist must have liked the sculpture as it took pride of place in his living room. Another interesting piece of sculpture in the sale, at 85 cm high, is made in ceramic. Female Figure Holding an Hourglass (est €8,000 to €10,000) is the work of Michael Powolny (1871-1954), an Austrian ceramist and one of the founders of the Wiener Keramik workshop, which later became part of the Wiener Werkstätte. See whytes.ie.

DEVERE’S

The Limerick artist John Shinnors (b 1950) has painted a lot of scarecrows. An artist that likes to dip in and out of themes, he’s also known for washing lines, gable ends, and birds in flight. An early painting by Shinnors, Scarecrow (1984), frightened a few pigeons when it went under the hammer at De Vere’s Irish Art Auction on September 20. The 84.5 x 68.5 cm oil painting (est. €6,000 to €9,000) sold for €14,500.

“People are fond of Shinnors’ scarecrow paintings and they were excited to see an early one,” says Rory Guthrie, auctioneer. “They liked that you can see what’s going on in the painting.”

Halloween Lovers V also by Shinnors sold for its lower estimate of €8,000. Another painting by the same artist Female Still Life Calendar, April (est €3,000 to €5,000) sold for €3,000. See deveres.ie.