In the salesrooms: Ireland’s biggest bear sculpture, worth €425,000, on display in Belfast

Oliver Gormley (left), of Gormleys, and Howard Hastings, chairman of Hastings Hotels, with Patrick O’Reilly’s Larger than Life, the largest single-piece Irish sculpture to ever come to the art market

These blue and white tulipieres went under the hammer at Fonsie Mealy’s Chatsworth Fine Art Sale in August and fetched €4,200

thumbnail: Oliver Gormley (left), of Gormleys, and Howard Hastings, chairman of Hastings Hotels, with Patrick O’Reilly’s Larger than Life, the largest single-piece Irish sculpture to ever come to the art market
thumbnail: These blue and white tulipieres went under the hammer at Fonsie Mealy’s Chatsworth Fine Art Sale in August and fetched €4,200
Eleanor Flegg

Do you want to meet Ireland’s biggest bear? Larger than Life, a four-metre sculpture from Patrick O’Reilly’s bear series, looks set to break all the records.

Gormley’s

It’s the artist’s biggest bear to date, reputedly larger than the one at Adare Manor, but there’s not a lot in it. Let’s hope they never, ever meet.

The big bear (which costs €425,000) is on display at Art + Soul, a sculpture exhibition curated by Gormley’s at Culloden Estate and Spa in Belfast until September 10. Other whoppers include Wind and Sea (€490,000) by Paddy Campbell, which is 4.3 metres high (see gormleys.ie).

​Fonsie Mealy

You can’t beat Chinese ceramics for adding spice to Irish auctions. Case in point, a pair of pyramid-shaped blue and white tulipieres (vases with individual openings intended to hold tulips), each on six paw feet with a flower finial above their 18 flower pockets. They went under the hammer at Fonsie Mealy’s Chatsworth Fine Art Sale on August 1 and 3. At face value, they were an attractive-but-odd looking pair and carried a conservative estimate of between €280 and €350. Much excitement, then, when the hammer fell at €4,200.

Other excitements included a pair of early concert cellos (est. €1,000 t0 €1,500) which sold for €6,800 and a pair of percussion duelling pistols in H W Mortimer, London, in their original case (est. €2,000 to €3,000) which sold for €5,000. See fonsiemealy.ie.

These blue and white tulipieres went under the hammer at Fonsie Mealy’s Chatsworth Fine Art Sale in August and fetched €4,200

​Hibernian Antiques Fairs

Expect around 80 stands from dealers in fine art, antique and vintage items at the National Antique Fair, which runs at Limerick Racecourse on Saturday, September 9 and Sunday, 10. “Relocating to the Racecourse has been the best move ever,” says Robin O’Donnell of Hibernian Antiques Fairs. “Our customers love the venue and there’s free parking.” The fair runs from 11am to 6pm each day and admission costs €5 for both days.

Sheppard’s

Do you have room in your life for an enormous American carved wood eagle? There’s one going under the hammer at Sheppard’s first interiors auction of the year, which kicks off in Durrow, Co Laois, on Tuesday, September 5 and Wednesday, 6. The eagle (Lot 246: est. €3,600 to €6,000) measures 140 x 173cm. It dates from around 1830 and is perched on a branch with traces of original gilding. Other wild cards in the sale include a vintage Mamod model steam car (Lot 210: est. €300 to €400). See sheppards.ie

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