Antiques and Fine Art: London calling for miniatures
A private collector who has just acquired the Comerford Collection of predominantly Irish miniatures at Chiswick Auctions in London plans to have it displayed at the Waterford Museum House of Treasures.
The collection of 121 lots, compiled over 40 years by the late John andPauline Comerford who descended from the Irish miniaturist John Comerford (c 1770-1832), sold for £98,000.
It is to be displayed at the Silver Museum of the Waterford House of Treasures. This had been scheduled to open in May and will now be opened in the autumn instead. The collection was bought under the guidance of the curator.
John and Pauline Comerford sourced works by some of the leading Irish miniaturists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
They studiously added to the collection, which demonstrates s the evolution of miniature painting in Britain, Ireland and the Continent from the late 16th to the 19th century.
It features the work of some of the greatest exponents of the portrait miniature art form including Christian Friedrich Zincke, Jean Andre Rouquet, Nathaniel Hone, Jeremiah Meyer, Charles Robertson, George Engleheart, Abraham Daniel, William Wood, John Smart, and Richard Cosway.
Specialist in charge of the sale Suzanne Zack commented: “We were delighted with the results of this first stand-alone sale of fine portrait miniatures, which included the spectacular Comerford Collection.
"Good results throughout the sale show that the portrait miniature market is very much alive.”
Highlights included lot 143, a portrait of the Pre-Raphaelite painter Holman Hunt by Edward Robert Hughes, which sold for £9,375 against a pre-sale estimate of £8,000-£12,000.
Other high prices were achieved for a fine portrait miniature of a dashing Officer (lot 18), dating from circa 1765/1770 by Jeremiah Meyer RA (British 1735-1789), which achieved £4,500 and a portrait miniature of an unknown Lady, circa 1790 (lot 36), by Horace Hone ARA (Irish 1754/6-1825), which sold for £4,125.
