The James Adam Salerooms has just published its review of auctions conducted by the company last year as well as a price guide to Irish art, the latter a complete list of works by this country's artists handled by Adam's in 1999 and 2000.
Both documents make for fascinating and helpful reading, since they help to give a clear idea of the escalating demand for good work here, as well as a corresponding increase in the prices being paid of late. Some of the painters who feature will already be familiar to anyone interested in Irish art - Jack Yeats, Roderic O'Conor, Paul Henry, Louis Le Brocquy - but the review also indicates the rise of other names that were, until quite recently, of very limited popularity.
There are, for example, photographs of two pictures by the Northern Irish artist William Conor, who for several decades after his death in 1968 attracted little attention. Late last March, however, a crayon drawing by Conor called The Bellows Minder fetched £24,800 at Adam's, while two months later the same artist's oil on canvas, A Rousing Chorus, sold for £33,000.
Another painter increasingly in vogue is Harry Kernoff. The Adam's price guide lists 18 of his works auctioned in the company's salerooms during the past two years, with a 1936 oil on board called Dublin Cab making a price of £50,000 in December 1999 and The Oysterman, or a Bar of a Song going for £12,000 last September. Some artists would, no doubt, enjoy greater popularity if more examples of their work came up for sale. Among those featured by Adam's who might fit into this category are Patrick Hennessy whose Still Life with Vase of Flowers and Fruit fetched £8,500 in late March last year, and Beatrice, Lady Glenavy; her delightful Poet and Shephardess sold for £29,500 less than three months ago. The problems of demand exceeding supply is even more apparent in the area of Irish antique furniture. This helps to explain why last year an Irish George III mahogany hall table in the Chinese Chippendale manner sold for £109,000 despite being, in the words of the auctioneering house "slightly distressed and in need of restoration".
Although a sound provenance helped - the table had come from former Guinness house Farmleigh in the Phoenix Park - the fact that it had been made in this country was also advantageous. It is interesting that, as yet, Victorian Killarney work has attracted the attention only of a select group of collectors.
In the past year, Adam's has sold several such pieces including an inlaid arbutus wood-shaped circular occasional table for £6,900 and an inlaid arbutus wood desk, the latter showing exceptional amounts of decorative detailing, for £8,800. Surely it can only be a matter of very little time before Killarney pieces appeal to a much wider market.
Among other instances of Irish furniture sold by Adam's of late, a set of four Irish George III mahogany-framed dining chairs in the Chippendale manner sold for £16,100 and a set of three George III mahogany dining chairs, their open latticework backs in the Chinese Chippendale manner, made £4,000.
It will be interesting to watch over the months ahead whether work of a similar quality comes on to the market and, if so, what prices it fetches.
