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Irish Examiner
05-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Antiques: Nine American gold eagle $10 coins make €10,000 in Dublin
ALL that glitters is not gold is an aphorism that collectors need to be aware of always, especially now. In these uncertain times, there is nothing remotely uncertain about the strong demand for a precious metal that is a long-term hedge against inflation and falling values. Always a safe haven for money in a stormy climate gold — headed by a group of nine American gold eagle ten-dollar 'Indian Head' coins from 1926 — made up no fewer than eight of the top 10 lots at the James Adam Jewellery Box sale in Dublin on June 24. They were the top lot of the auction and made €10,000 at hammer. A collection of 26 gold half-sovereigns made €7,500, a group of 12 gold sovereigns made €6,500, 23 Victorian half-sovereigns made €6,000 and other gold coins in the top 10 made hammer prices of €6,000, €5,500 and €5,000. Where all that leaves everything else on the auction market in Ireland right now is an open question. All sorts of collectibles are selling well, Irish art continues to be a mainstay, demand for antique furniture remains pretty much in the doldrums and demand across the board can best be described as variable. A 1913 centrepiece by West and Son with Celtic Revival detailing at Sheppards. House sales are always a draw. Sheppard's will offer contents from a classic Victorian house at 6 Royal Terrace in the leafy suburbs of Dun Laoghaire on July 15 and 16. There will be much interest in the collection of lawyer Philip Murphy, a partner at McCann FitzGerald, who died last year. His father, JT Murphy, served as a Labour Party TD for West Cork from 1923 until his sudden death in 1949, at which point he had been Minister for Local Government in the John A Costello government. Philip Murphy and his late wife Constance were collectors of everything from Killarney ware and antique clocks to silver, Arts and Crafts carpets and oriental art. Among the prime lots in the sale are: an 18th-century Irish ebonised bracket clock by Graydon, Dublin (€4,000-€6,000), a Donegal runner by CFA Voysey (€3,000-€6,000), a Guangxu lime-glazed bowl (€3,000-€6,000), a pair of Ottoman flintlock pistols (€2,000-€3,000), a West and Son Irish silver Celtic Revival centrepiece from 1913 (€2,000-€3,000), a Killarney games box (€1,400-€1,800), two Killarney writing boxes and a Killarney ware box, each estimated at €800-€1,200, and a 19th-century marine chronometer by Thomas Roberts, Liverpool (€4,000-€6,000). Art by Mark O'Neill, Graham Knuttel, Markey Robinson, Louis le Brocquy and John Butler Yeats will feature at Aidan Foley's auction at 6pm on July 7 and 8. This is a sale of art, antique furniture, garden statuary and collectibles, offering everything from a Georgian oak coffer and a Killarney wood trinket box to Victorian games, tea and dining tables and Oriental rugs and runners. A Warming Glow by Mark O'Neill at Aidan Foley's auction. A double-weight Vienna wall clock in walnut is estimated at just €200-€400, as is an 18th-century oval dropleaf dining table and a Victorian parquetry inlaid side table. Tribal art is always of interest, and a large carved African mask is estimated at just €60-€100. Choices range from a coromandel wood games box ((€60-€80) and a vintage Babycham dish for nibbles (€40-€80) to a pair of large blue and white platters (€200-€300) and a Tiffany style table lamp (€200-€250). The auction is on view in Doneraile on July 5, 6 and 7. Should you decide to go in search of gold, you will find it at the Matthews sale in Kells on Sunday and Monday. Lot 538 is a US Liberty double eagle 1903 gold 20-dollar coin (€1,500-€2,500). A selection of the jewellery on offer at Matthews in Kells. A Queen Elizabeth II gold sovereign is estimated at €400-€700, and a 1905 half-sovereign is estimated at €200-€300. The top lot is an art deco diamond-link bracelet mounted in platinum (€20,000-€30,000), and the sale offers a wide selection of desirable pieces. Read More Online sales of affordable art reflect current global trends
New York Times
01-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump Nominates Alina Habba as New Jersey's Permanent U.S. Attorney
President Trump on Tuesday nominated Alina Habba, his former campaign spokeswoman and personal lawyer, to be New Jersey's U.S. attorney for the next four years, a move that would remove her interim status. In doing so, Mr. Trump endorsed a loyal supporter with little prosecutorial experience to continue leading one of the country's top law enforcement offices. Mr. Trump in March appointed Ms. Habba to the office, which has historically been an incubator for prominent elected officials and jurists. Ms. Habba has bucked the traditionally nonpartisan approach of U.S. attorneys. She has aggressively carried out Mr. Trump's wish to use the Justice Department to target his enemies, including Democratic elected officials who oppose the president's immigration agenda. 'We could turn New Jersey red. I really do believe that,' Ms. Habba said in an interview with a conservative podcast host after her appointment. 'Hopefully while I'm there, I can help that cause.' She has directed the government's lawyers to investigate Philip D. Murphy, the Democratic governor of New Jersey, and the state's attorney general, Matthew J. Platkin, over the state's immigration policies. In May, Ms. Habba's office brought criminal trespassing charges against Ras Baraka, the mayor of Newark, after he was arrested outside an immigration detention facility. Her office has also charged Representative LaMonica McIver, who was also present at the facility when Mr. Baraka was arrested, with assault. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Irish Times
28-06-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Peruse a lifetime's worth of art and antiques in the Dún Laoghaire home of their collector
House content auctions are rarer now than in the past, when viewing the interior of a discreet deceased neighbour's lavish home was a weekend hobby for many people. Nowadays, most houses are emptied of their furniture, precious paintings and various collectibles, and these items are put up for sale in auction rooms with a mélange of pieces from other homes. Not so in the case of 6 Royal Terrace West, Dún Laoghaire. The contents of the property will be on view in the house, July 12th-14th, 10am-5pm each day, in advance of the auction in Sheppard's auction rooms in Durrow, Co Laois on July 15th and 16th. Royal Terrace, one of the architectural gems of south Dublin, was built as two facing terraces on opposite sides of a four-acre park in 1860. The two-storey over basement homes were part of the expansion of Dún Laoghaire following the opening of the Dublin-Kingstown railway line in 1834 and the completion of the harbour in the 1840s. READ MORE 6 Royal Terrace West, Dún Laoghaire Front hall of 6 Royal Terrace West, Dun Laoghaire Until recently, number 6 was owned by Philip and Constance Murphy. Originally from west Cork, Philip was the youngest of six children of TJ Murphy, Labour Party TD and minister for local government in 1948-1949. Philip Murphy, who died in September 2024, was a solicitor and an avid collector of antiques. The house, which was put on the market by Savills with a guide price of €1,400,000 earlier this year, is currently sale agreed. Both Philip and Constance, who predeceased him, were active member of the Royal Terrace West Residents' Association. 'The terrace wouldn't be intact today if it wasn't for the work of Philip Murphy,' says a neighbour, Breasal O'Caollai. As well as campaigning against any development that would destroy the integrity of these Victorian homes, Murphy also led the campaign to bring the park back into public ownership. 'He was the custodian of the square since they moved there in the 1960s. He was concerned about maintaining the architectural heritage of the area and he persuaded the county council to buy back the land in the 1980s from Monkstown Hockey Club,' says his niece, Hilary Walsh. The Royal Terrace park, which has been planted with trees and laid out with paths and green spaces, is now popular among locals and visitors alike. The Murphy's Victorian terraced house has many original features, which are complemented with antique furniture, clocks, art and carefully chosen ornamental pieces. 'I can remember visiting the house, seeing all the clocks wound up, smelling the furniture polish and everything just so pristine,' says Walsh. And so, this house content auction offers members of the public a rare opportunity to see a lifetime's collection of antique furniture, oriental art and ornaments (including Chinese snuff bottles), several antique clocks and mirrors, silver and wooden boxes, in an almost museum like setting. 'Each item offers insight into a life lived with genuine engagement and appreciation for the decorative and historic arts,' says Michael Sheppard, who has been cataloguing the items over the past few weeks. A rare 19th-century French automaton bird clock under a glass dome (€5,000-€8,000) One of the more unusual items for sale is a rare 19th-century French automaton bird clock under a glass dome (€5,000-€8,000). It features a rotating tree with multiple taxidermy hummingbirds and other exotic birds perched among naturalistic silk flowers. The mechanism causes the birds to rotate in synchrony with the passage of time. Also of note is a mid-20th century hand-knotted Donegal wool carpet (€5,000-€8,000). This piece was inspired by the designs of Charles Francis Annesley Voysey, the English architect and designer renowned for his Arts and Crafts style wallpapers, fabrics and furniture – some of which can be seen in London's Victoria and Albert Museum. Antique furniture enthusiasts may also be drawn to a Victorian Wellington mahogany chest (€400-€600). Named after the 1st Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley – who led the British armies to victory at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 against Napoleon – the chest is tall and narrow with a single key locking all seven small drawers. This offers a perfectly secure, compact and portable storage for someone frequently on the move. Meanwhile, Whyte's Summer Online auction, which ends on Monday from 6pm, offers collectors a snapshot of 20th-century Irish artists, as well as affordable prints of works by Paul Henry and Jack Butler Yeats, among others. Frescati House in Blackrock, Co Dublin, by Peter Pearson Take, for example, the painting of Frescati House in Blackrock, Co Dublin, by artist and architectural historian, Peter Pearson. Painted in 1982, a year before the Georgian house was demolished, the painting is a reminder of its loss. Originally built in 1739 for the family of John Hely Hutchinson, then provost of Trinity College Dublin, Frescati House was later owned by the Fitzgeralds, who also owned Leinster House in Dublin and Carton House in Co Kildare. The Fitzgeralds named the house Frescati, a deliberate derivative of the Italian city of Frascati – a name which was revived for the Blackrock shopping centre, built on the land of the demolished mansion. A watercolour and pencil drawing of St Peter's Church in Drogheda, Co Louth by Thomas Ryan (€300-€500) September Morning, Castle Archdale, Co Fermanagh by Colin Middleton (€1,200-€1,500) A watercolour of the Museum Building in Trinity College Dublin by Eve Lyn Hope (€500-€700) Baked Beans Boy (€300-€500), the Self-Portrait by Paul Hewson (Bono) Among the lots at Whyte's auction are some interesting watercolours. These include a watercolour and pencil drawing of St Peter's Church in Drogheda, Co Louth by Thomas Ryan (€300-€500); a watercolour of the Museum Building in Trinity College Dublin by Eve Lyn Hope (€500-€700); and September Morning, Castle Archdale, Co Fermanagh by Colin Middleton (€1,200-€1,500). The Self-Portrait by Paul Hewson (Bono), entitled, Baked Beans Boy (€300-€500), is also sure to draw some interest. ; What did it sell for? Crossing the City by Jack B Yeats Crossing the City by Jack B Yeats Estimate £100,000-£150,000 Hammer price Unsold Auction house Bonham's Christian Dior flower brooch Christian Dior flower brooch Estimate €80-€100 Hammer price €200 Auction house Adam's 18-carat gold small mesh bag 18-carat gold small mesh bag Estimate €2,000-€3,000 Hammer price €2,400 Auction house Adam's Wicklow Early Morning by Sean McSweeney Wicklow Early Morning by Sean McSweeney Estimate €500-€700 Hammer price €500 Auction house Morgan O'Driscoll
New York Times
16-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
New Jersey Transit Engineers Strike, Idling Trains and Upending Commutes
The first statewide transit strike in New Jersey in more than 40 years left a fleet of passenger trains parked in rail yards and thousands of commuters stranded, annoyed and bewildered Friday morning. The strike followed months of negotiations between New Jersey Transit, the nation's third-largest commuter rail network, and the union that represents train drivers, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. Union members began picketing at stations on Friday after contract talks broke down late Thursday night. State officials said they hoped to resume negotiations with the union over the weekend so that the strike would end before Monday. Gov. Philip D. Murphy apologized to commuters whose trips had been disrupted and blamed union leaders for refusing to accept an offer that he said was fair to their members and fiscally responsible for the state. 'It is frankly a mess of their own making and it is a slap in the face of every commuter and worker who relies on NJ Transit,' Mr. Murphy, a Democrat, said at a news conference in Aberdeen, N.J. Thomas Haas, the union's general chairman, said his negotiating team had been optimistic about reaching an agreement until late Thursday. 'They decided to walk away,' Mr. Haas said. 'It's definitely frustrating, but we're willing to go back to the table.' Some commuters did not learn about the shutdown until they arrived at their local train stations early Friday. Leslie Bell, 34, was stuck at the station in Trenton, trying to get to his job as supervisor at a Wawa store in Newark. He had bought NJ Transit tickets in advance and his only option for getting to work on time for his 8 a.m. shift was an Amtrak train that would cost $110. 'I can't pay $110 to get to Newark on Amtrak, plus all the tickets are sold out,' Mr. Bell said. 'This is ridiculous.' NJ Transit's contingency plan called for providing chartered buses from four spots in the state as substitutes for the idle trains. But the buses could only accommodate about one-fifth of the displaced train riders, and they were not scheduled to start running until Monday. On a typical weekday, about 70,000 commuters ride NJ Transit trains into New York City. But Kris Kolluri, the agency's chief executive, said the shutdown of the train lines would affect all 350,000 NJ Transit riders, including those who take buses and light rail. Mr. Kolluri, who has been leading management's bargaining team, said on Friday that he believed the two sides were 95 percent of the way to a deal. The last major sticking point has been a union demand that NJ Transit engineers be paid on par with their counterparts at the other passenger railroads that serve New York City, Amtrak, the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad. Mr. Haas said his members earned $10 an hour less than engineers at the other railroads. NJ Transit's offer, the union said, amounted to annual increases of about 2.7 percent over 7.5 years, compared with average annual raises of 4.87 percent it recently negotiated with Amtrak. Mr. Kolluri said NJ Transit had offered the engineers a contract that would have brought their starting hourly wage to nearly $50, close to what the L.I.R.R. pays. He said a tentative contract that union members overwhelmingly rejected last month would have raised their average annual pay to $172,000 from $135,000. Union officials disputed those figures, saying that the engineers' annual base pay was only $89,000 and that most earned less than $100,000 a year. Mr. Kolluri, who called the striking engineers his 'colleagues,' said he expected talks to resume on Sunday, if not sooner. While Mr. Kolluri and Mr. Murphy spoke to reporters in Aberdeen, a half-dozen striking engineers stood across the street holding signs. They said they loved their jobs and wanted to get back to work as soon as a deal could be reached. 'I feel bad for the people we move every day, the worker bees and the sports fans,' said Michael Delatore, 37, who drove a Coast Line train on its last run to Long Branch Thursday night. He said he was anxious and 'stressed' about being on strike and was willing to return to work 'immediately.' By taking the drastic action of walking out, the engineers probably gained the upper hand in the bargaining, at least temporarily, Bill Dwyer, an associate teaching professor at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, said in an interview on Friday. 'If there's a power imbalance, I think it goes in favor of the union at this point,' he said. Shutting down the railroad 'gives the union additional leverage because the ridership is not going to be happy,' Professor Dwyer said. The transit agency's customers, he added, are 'going to be very impatient' about having their service restored. Still, he said, that advantage may be short-lived if New Jersey Transit retaliates by cutting off payments for the engineers' health insurance. Striking workers would start to feel the financial pinch of not getting paid after a couple of weeks, he said. Having to cover their own health-care costs could compound that discomfort quickly. 'They are escalating the situation,' Professor Dwyer said, referring to the union, 'and the bigger guns might start coming out.' Matt Stratton, 47, a banker from Glen Ridge, N.J., who takes a train into Manhattan regularly, said he dreaded what would happen if the strike continued into next week. 'I have no idea how I'm getting to work on Monday,' he said while standing on a platform at Pennsylvania Station in Newark. 'I'm actively looking into figuring out what to do.' Mr. Stratton expressed no sympathy for either side in the dispute. 'We just had a fare increase, and reliability is terrible,' he said. 'I was delayed every day last week. It's hard to be sympathetic just based on the poor service.'
New York Times
16-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Live Updates: Governor Apologizes as NJ Transit Strike Leaves Commuters Searching for Rides
Pinned The first statewide transit strike in New Jersey in more than 40 years began just after midnight Friday when about 450 unionized locomotive engineers walked off their jobs in a pay dispute, shutting down New Jersey Transit's rail network. Some commuters showed up at NJ Transit rail stations on Friday morning unaware of the shutdown, while others rushed to find different modes of transportation into New York City and beyond for work. Tens of thousands of commuters ride the trains on a typical workday. They rushed to take ferries, NJ Transit buses and charter bus services. Amtrak was an option for passengers in some areas of New Jersey, but at a steep cost. Some commuters in Trenton said they could not afford a one-way ticket of up to $118 into the New York City metropolitan region, about six times the cost of a NJ Transit rail ticket. (Later in the morning, some Amtrak fares posted online were lower.) Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey apologized on Friday morning to commuters whose trips had been disrupted and said that NJ Transit was eager to reach deal with the union, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. 'It is a slap in the face of every commuter and worker who relies on NJ Transit,' Mr. Murphy said at a news conference. Union members began picketing early Friday. Tom Haas, the union's general chairman, said on Friday that the group had been optimistic about a possible settlement until late Thursday night. 'They decided to walk away,' he said. 'It's definitely frustrating, but we're willing to go back to the table.' Here's what we're covering: Working from home: NJ Transit urged rail commuters whose presence at their workplaces was not essential to work from home during the strike. Some big employers in New York, including Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, gave workers temporary permission to work remotely or said they would consider providing flexibility. Bus service: NJ Transit's statewide bus system continued to operate as scheduled. The agency hired private buses to substitute for its train service, but they will start running on Monday, and Kris Kolluri, the chief executive of NJ Transit, said that the chartered buses could accommodate only about 20 percent of the displaced train riders. There is no supplemental bus service on Friday. Using your tickets: Commuters who already have NJ Transit rail tickets and passes to or from New York, Newark or Hoboken may use those tickets on NJ Transit's existing bus routes and light rail lines. But they will not be cross-honored on other carriers, including Amtrak, PATH, ferries and private carrier buses. Pay dispute: The union says its members want parity in wages with their counterparts who work for the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad. Mr. Kolluri said an offer the union voted down in March would have raised the average annual pay of full-time engineers to $172,000 from $135,000. But Mr. Haas said those figures were inflated. Picket lines: The union planned to have picket lines at Penn Station in New York, at NJ Transit's headquarters in Newark and at the train station in Atlantic City. Sports and concerts: NJ Transit also carries fans to concerts and sporting events at the Prudential Center in Newark and MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. Before the midnight deadline, the agency had already canceled service to MetLife for Shakira's concerts on Thursday and Friday nights. Here are alternate ways to get to and from MetLife. Show more
