Irish Arts Review

Treasures from a ConnoisseurAuthor(s): Robert O'ByrneSource: Irish Arts Review (2002-), Vol. 22, No. 4 (Winter, 2005), p. 68Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25503285 .

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CO

Cd UNDER THE HAMMER

Thomas Frye at Adam's An auction record for Kingerlee at Whyte's A

successful debut at Adam's Roy Davids' collection at Bonhams A family

aesthetic at Adam's Basil Rakoczi at Whyte's Portraits by Hugh Douglas

Hamilton at Adam's Commemorative Irish silver tray at Mealy's

Report from Robert O'Byrne

t

(TREASURES FROM A CONNOISSEUR A fine collection of furniture and pictures,

assembled by the late Dr Michael Wynne has

been gradually dispersed over a number of sales

during the past year. Several items turned up at

two Adams' auctions in September, including a

pair of fine mezzotints by Thomas Frye. This

18th-century Irish artist is little remembered

today but enjoyed considerable fame during his

own lifetime. A close friend of Sir Joshua

Reynolds and a significant influence on Joseph

Wright of Derby, Frye was born in Edenderry,

Co Offaly in 1710. In his mid-twenties he moved

to London where he became fashionable follow

ing a commission for a full-length portrait of

Frederick, Prince of Wales. As Crookshank and

Glin note in their The Watercolours of Ireland

c. 1600-1914, he worked in a variety of media, including

black and white chalk. One of these drawings, a brood

ing study of a man in profile (Fig 1), was sold by Adam's

in late September for 32,000: a considerably higher sum than the 3,000- 5,000 anticipated.

Aside from his portrait work, Frye also deserves credit

for being the man who introduced the production of fine

Kingerlee is no newcomer to the market: next year he turns

seventy and has been painting for more than four decades

porcelain to these islands. Experimenting with china clay,

he discovered a method of making porcelain out of bone

ash. The result produced not only brilliant whiteness and

luminescence but also durability. With a business part

ner, Frye took out a patent for the manufacture of artifi

cial soft-paste porcelain to be known as 'New Canton' in

reference to the Chinese pottery with which they hoped

to compete. A factory was established near London's Bow

Bridge in 1749 with Frye at the head of the operation and it proved highly successful. Despite the demands on

his time, he still continued to work as a portraitist. In

the years immediately preceding his death in 1762, he

published a sequence of seventeen life-size mezzotint

heads in two series. Although believed to have been

drawn from life, other than a self-portrait, these engrav

ings were issued without titles as a series of 'fanciful

heads' arranged in diverse poses. The second series

(1761-1762), 'Ladies, very elegantly attired in the fash

ion, and in the most agreeable attitudes' reflect the

artist's interest in costume and jewellery. Two such ladies

were sold by Adam's on 14 September; both went above

their upper estimate of 1,500 to fetch 2,000.

A NEW HIGH FOR KINGERLEE The latest artist to benefit from a surge of attention at

Irish sales is John Kingerlee. Even if he is relatively unknown to the general public, Kingerlee is no new

comer to the market: next year he turns seventy and has

been painting for more than four decades. Although

born and raised in England, he has tangential Irish con

nections, with Cork ancestry on the maternal side and

a home on the Beara Peninsula since the early 1980s. In

the intervening period, he has consistently exhibited in

this country and enjoyed quiet success. But if the prices

recently achieved at auction for his work are any indica

tor, that situation could be about to change. Prior to last

year, the highest sum paid for one of Kingerlee's pictures

was 9,500. Since then there has been a rapid rise in

what collectors are prepared to pay: up to 24,000 at

Christie's Irish Art Sale in May 2004 and then 51,400 at Sotheby's equivalent auction in May of this year. Last

September that record was again surpassed when an

American buyer paid .60,000 for the self-taught

68 I IRISH ARTS REVIEW WINTER 2005

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