Breakfront secretaire bookcase fetches £9,200

An early 19th-century mahogany breakfront secretaire bookcase made the greatest contribution to a £300,000 (including premium) sale total when it sold for £9,200 at Tuesday's contents sale of Knock Abbey in Co Louth. A pair of Irish provincial painted pine side tables, which once served as the altar for the house's chapel, made less at £7,800 but far surpassed its estimate of £1,000-£1,500; another Irish lot, a mahogany crossbanded centre table, fetched £7,000, more than triple its lower estimate. Furniture produced in this country obviously will always have a keen following here, so it is surprising auctioneers Hamilton Osborne King had such modest expectations for both these items. Another Irish piece, a 19th century mahogany side table also sold for a higher figure than had been predicted when it was bought for £5,500 and so too did both an early 19th-century Irish mahogany sideboard (going for £3,000) and an early 19th-century Irish mahogany serving table (£2,700).

An 1820 oil by John Herring of a horse standing in a landscape sold for £6,500 and a pair of 17th-century Roman school canvases depicting classical figures made £5,000. Finally, both an 18th-century oil of classical figures reclining in a landscape and a mahogany and boxwood inlaid bookcase (circa 1800) fetched the same sum, £3,800.

Irish silver candlesticks sell for £2,250

Thomas Adams of Blackrock sold a pair of Irish silver candlesticks for £2,250 last Tuesday, when a silver salmon tray went for £1,200 and a silver dish ring fetched for £1,000. These were the day's three top figures. A Victorian mahogany dining table sold for £870, a Victorian mahogany side cabinet made £820 and a Victorian mahogany sideboard and two sets of six Victorian mahogany dining chairs all went under the hammer for the same price of £700 each.

Top price of £5,800 for demi-lune card tables

A total of £160,000 (including premium) was made at Mullen's of Laurel Park last week, with a pair of mahogany and satinwood demi-lune card tables fetching the top price of £5,800.

The next best figure - £4,100 - was achieved by an eight-piece Edwardian mahogany bedroom suite, while a mahogany breakfront bookcase sold for £3,600. Just £100 less than the latter figure was paid for a set of six-plus-two mahogany shield-back dining chairs, and a mahogany bowfront secretaire bookcase went for £3,100. A mahogany circular dining table fetched £3,000 and an Edwardian mahogany and painted china cabinet sold for £2,600.

Coollattin House pier tables fetch £16,000

A pair of George III white-painted and mahogany pier tables, probably Irish and supplied to William, Earl Fitzwilliam for Coollattin House, Co Wicklow, were sold by Christie's in London earlier this month for £16,000. The tables were included in an auction of items from English property Wentworth Woodhouse.