Adam's IMPORTANT IRISH ART Auction Wednesday 24th March 2021

74 63 HARRY CLARKE RHA (1889-1931) Bluebeard’s Last Wife Miniature stained glass panel in an inlaid mahogany, walnut and tortoishell cabinet, made by Dublin cabinet maker James Hicks 28 x 14.5cm (11 x 5¾’’) Signed and dated 1921. Backlit by a full-size LED light panel. Provenance: Purchased at the 1921 Arts & Crafts Society, cat. no. 292 Exhibition by Albert Wood, a barrister, friend and patron of Clarkes for £20 and he had it mounted in the Hick’s cabinet. Thence by descent and sold in these rooms, 9/12/1998, cat. no. 62; also 5/12/2011, cat no.113 where purchased by the current owner. Exhibited: Arts & Crafts Society of Ireland 6th Annual Exhibition 1921, cat. no. 292;Exposition d’Art Irlan- dais, Galeries Barbazanges, Paris 1922 cat. no. 258; Harry Clarke Retrospective Exhibition, The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College Dublin, November-December 1979, cat. no. 167; The Arts & Crafts Move- ment in Europe and America, 1800-1920, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, December 2004-April 2005; this major exhibition toured to Delaware Art Museum from June 2005-September 2005 and The Cleveland Museum of Art from October 2005-January 2006. Clarke’s piece was one of only a handful of Irish works included in the exhibition; A Celebration of Irish Art & Modernism, The Ava Gallery, Clan- deboye, Co. Down, June- September 2011, cat. No. 4; The Arts & Crafts Movement - Making it Irish, McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, February - June 2016, cat. no. 160. Literature: Nicola Gordon Bowe , The Life and Works of Harry Clarke 1989, fig 120, p.136; Nicola Gordon Bowe and Elizabeth Cumming The Arts and Crafts Movements in Dublin and Edinburgh 1885 - 1925 cat. no. 30, p.103; Nicola Gordon-Bowe, Harry Clarke , cat. no. 167 p.110; Wendy Kaplan, The Arts & Crafts Movement in Europe and America; Design for the Modern World , Thames and Hudson, 2005, p296, full page colour illustration p.294; Lucy Costigan and Michael Cullen Strangest Genius - the Stained Glass of Harry Clarke 2010, full page illustration p.291; Vera Kreilkamp , The Arts & Crafts Movement - Making it Irish 2016 cat. no. 160, illus. p.288 € 80,000 - 120,000 Eleanor Flegg writing a preview of the present lot in The Irish Independent (26/2/2021) explained the story thus - ‘Bluebeard’s last wife should have known better. He already had been married to several wives and nobody knew what had become of them. That was her first warning. Then he told her not to open the door to his secret chamber, while al- lowing her access to the key. Her curious- ity would not be denied. Finally, having discovered what was in the chamber (dead wives), she orchestrated his downfall and became mistress of all his estate. Bluebeard was a nasty piece of work, but his last wife was also a woman to be reckoned with. She was the one that got away.’ CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOGRAPHS AND BIDDING