![\"Oscar](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/EFGWB2VBDVCO5HXBNGVMRVU5LA.jpg\")
Oscar Wilde’s desk which was sold to an Irish collector for \u20ac29,000 at Fonsie Mealy’s auction in June 2025 <\/p>\nAchill horse painting<\/p>\n
For Ian Whyte, chairman at Whyte\u2019s, his favourite painting of the year is Mainie Jellett\u2019s Achill Horses, which the Dublin auction house sold on May 26th. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis was the largest of a series of paintings of horses, which Jellett created after she visited an exhibition of Chinese art in London in 1935. The combination of the Chinese influence and her developing cubism is unique in this painting, and the range of colours she uses makes it a masterpiece,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
Whyte acknowledges that The National Gallery exhibition \u2018Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone. The Art of Friendship\u2019, which ran this year from April to August, helped Whyte\u2019s to achieve a world record price of \u20ac210,000 (\u20ac261,660 including buyers premium and VAT) for this painting. The National Gallery exhibition also included two smaller Achill Horses paintings. <\/p>\n
Oscar Wilde\u2019s desk<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the outstanding items handled by our firm in 2025 was when Oscar Wilde\u2019s desk went under the hammer in June,\u201d explains George Fonsie Mealy of Kilkenny\u2019s Fonsie Mealy. <\/p>\n
Fonsie Mealy says that the desk came to the Castlecomer auction rooms directly from a descendant of the Wilde family. \u201cIt is believed to be the very piece at which he worked during his most prolific creative period.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is always something special to handle objects with such powerful cultural and literary associations, and this remarkable desk offered a rare and tangible link to one of the most celebrated figures of the 19th century,\u201d he adds. <\/p>\n
The William IV (c.1830) oversized slope-top rosewood Davenport desk, was attributed to Gillows cabinetmakers from Lancaster, in England. <\/p>\n
Oscar Wilde’s desk which was sold to an Irish collector for \u20ac29,000 at Fonsie Mealy’s auction in June 2025 <\/p>\n
These popular desks were designed with a compartment for storage space under the hinged desktop, much like school desks of bygone eras. There are also drawers to the side and this particular desk also had closed in storage space at the front. The desk owes its name to a Captain Davenport, who was the first to commission Gillows to design this style of desk. <\/p>\n
The estimate on the piece was \u20ac6,000 – \u20ac8,000, with many Irish and international buyers interested. \u201cThe bidding was brisk with telephone bidders, internet bidding, and bidders in the room,\u201d says Fonsie Mealy. The final hammer price was \u20ac29,000 and the desk was sold to a private Irish collector.<\/p>\n
Landscape painting<\/p>\n
Identifying his most admired work of the year in 2025 is easy for Rory Guthrie of deVeres, because the painting \u2013 Paysage aux Arbres by Roderic O\u2019Conor (1860-1940) – is also his favourite painting that he ever sold.<\/p>\n
\u201cLucky enough to first auction it in Ireland in 2022, we re-offered Paysage Aux Arbres, a major work by the artist, in our November auction. It\u2019s just a beautiful thing and it\u2019s rare something this good comes to the market,\u201d says Guthrie. <\/p>\n
Art critic Jonathan Benington suggests the painting can be viewed as a key turning point in O\u2019Conor\u2019s career from impressionism to post-impressionism. Although not dated, it is believed to have been painted by O\u2019Conor when he was in the artists\u2019 colony of Grez-sur-Loing in the Seine-et-Marne region of France. Benington writes that aged just 29, O\u2019Conor was already inspired by the work of Van Gogh and Cezanne and no longer content with literal transcriptions of the scene in front of him. <\/p>\n
\u201cO\u2019Conor would have enjoyed the tree-rich surrounds of Grez, Bourron-Marlotte and Montigney-sur-Loing, only to then experiment as he worked outdoors using a range of colours that heightened those he observed in nature,\u201d writes Benington. <\/p>\n
The painting had a guide price of \u20ac200,000 – \u20ac300,000 and achieved a hammer price of \u20ac340,000. It had previously sold at a deVeres auction for \u20ac300,000 in June, 2022. <\/p>\n
![\"Paysage](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/46FNDW6UKVHJRB24VEFELTKKEE.jpg\")
Paysage aux Arbres by Roderic O\u2019Conor (1860-1940) sold by deVeres in November 2025 for a hammer price of \u20ac340,000. Rory Guthrie says that it is the most favourite painting that he has ever sold. Kashmir sapphire<\/p>\n
No surprise perhaps, as to what Claire-Laurence Mestrallet, director of jewellery at Adam\u2019s auctioneers, chose as her top sale of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy favourite lot this year is undoubtedly the Kashmir sapphire sold in May. It\u2019s a true privilege to have discovered, valued and have had this stone in the auction, due to its extreme rarity,\u201d says Mestrallet. She adds that the Kashmir sapphire was also one of the best quality of Kashmir sapphires ever seen in her career – \u201cso no wonder it fetched \u20ac660,000 including premium,\u201d she adds. The sapphire had first been given an estimate of \u20ac8,000 – \u20ac12,000, until gemmological lab tests revealed its origins. Then, the estimate went to \u20ac150,000 – \u20ac200,000.<\/p>\n
![\"Kashmir](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/QHQFISSPK5ADXHZKG2LUUXJMUE.jpg\")
Kashmir sapphire ring, sold by Adam’s in May 2025 for \u20ac660,000 <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s also my favourite lot because it gave us all a real buzz including the auctioneer on the rostrum, and placed the department on the international scene as it is in the top 10 price per carat achieved at auction worldwide these last 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Patrick](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/A3R25VV4OFE5REDGE3KGZHDE64.jpg\")
Patrick Kavanagh’s book, Tarry Flynn which made \u20ac13,000 at Purcell’s auction in September 2025 <\/p>\n