|
|
 |
|
| Passion Investments: Collectibles |
Raising Eire
Richard John Pietschmann
03/01/2007
|
 | ONE OF a pair of circa 1760 soup tureens by Irish silversmith
John
Laughlin Sr. The pair sold at Christie’s for $164,300. (Photograph courtesy Christie's New York.) |
Courtly and eccentric, John V.
Rowan built his life around an obsession with domestic and presentation silver
crafted by the talented artisans who thrived in Ireland from the late 1600s
until England imposed the Act of Union in 1800, which signaled the end of the
golden age of Irish silver. "He was 6-foot-5, wore a big old mink coat like a
Russian aristocrat, and kept silver in every nook and cranny—under the bed, in
the broom closet, under the kitchen sink," says Tim Martin, president of S.J.
Shrubsole, the prominent New York silver dealer whose namesake owner, Eric
Shrubsole, was Rowan’s close friend and silver advisor. "He loved Irish
silver." The New York collector and Texas native, who died in 2002,
possessed a collection of 18th-century Irish silver that Silver magazine, in his
obituary, noted was "generally regarded as the best in the world." Thomas
Sinsteden, a leading Irish silver scholar who is researching a book on the
subject, calls Rowan’s collection "magnificent." It is, he says, "by far the
finest American collection of Irish silver." That collection now resides in Rowan’s hometown at the San
Antonio Museum of Art, which received the first of 275 groupings in 1992 and the
remainder following his death. "He was a real character who had one foot in the
19th century, but would have rather had it in the 18th century," says museum
director Marion Oettinger. About half of the 400-piece collection will remain on
display in the fourth floor of the museum’s East Tower until a new gallery opens
in 2008, with the Irish-born Sinsteden as adjunct curator. Largely overshadowed by far more plentiful and widely known
English and continental silver, Irish silver has grown in favor with collectors
who value its rarity and aesthetic. "It is distinct in design and construction
to English pieces, thus it is ab initio much more valuable and collectible than
English," says Jimmy Weldon, whose J.W. Weldon in Dublin is considered the
world’s top Irish silver dealer.  | A 1715 monteith bowl by David King went for $95,600 at Christie’s. |
"If you put me in a room filled with English silver and only a
few Irish pieces, I will recognize the Irish pieces from across the room,"
Sinsteden says. Rupert Slingsby, head of Bonhams’ silver department in London,
agrees. "Good Irish silver is often very identifiable without looking at the
hallmarks. There are little things like extended drip pans on candlesticks,
which are typically Irish, and the shape and decoration on sugar bowls, often
using native birds and animals, which are also recognizably Irish."Irish silver dating from 200 to 300 years ago is both more
idiosyncratic and far scarcer than its English and continental counterparts. The
finest works date from the first half of the 18th century, which began with
styles that were somewhat plain and often quite unadorned, and then progressed
toward highly decorated rococo. A group of exceptionally talented
silversmiths—Thomas Bolton, David King, John Hamilton and Robert Calderwood
among them—added to the sheen of Irish silver produced during this period. The
hallmarking imprinted by the silversmith—or the lack thereof—dating a piece and
identifying its maker is an important factor in valuing a piece. The Irish developed an affinity for certain forms such as the
dish ring (sometimes incorrectly called a "potato ring") used to raise hot
platters and bowls above a table, and the freedom box, a kind of honorary key to
the city bestowed upon their owners and much more common in Ireland than
elsewhere. Also particularly Irish, says Kevin Tierney, head of the Sotheby’s
New York silver department, are helmet-shaped creamers with three feet and
two-handled cups.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
