Another successful night on the rostrum for Whyte & Son – Ian and Peter -  as they hammered out yet another €1 million plus sale of mainly Irish art. Just under 90% of the lots sold for a gross total of over €1.25 million

The highest price paid was €150,000 for a Jack Yeats 14 by 18 inches oil, titled “Justice”. A smaller Yeats oil – “A Passage is Required”, 9 by 14 inches, took a winning bid of €115,000. Both went to collectors in Dublin. A very large oil by James Humbert Craig, which was painted for the Empire Marketing Board in the 1920s for use on a poster promoting the linen industry, well exceeded its pre-sale estimate of €20,000 to €30,000, going to a Dublin collector who outbid a Northern Ireland institution at €54,000. The talented Mr and Mrs Harry Clarke were responsible for two works making a total  just under €50,000  - Harry for a posthumous stained glass panel at €25,000 and Margaret for an oil painting of children at €24,000. Other well-known Irish artists in the sale were Paul Henry with a landscape that made €66,000 and Louis le Brocquy, whose sketch for his masterpiece A Family, took €49,000.