Buyer gets claws into oil painting
Tigers at Dusk, an oil on canvas by Arthur Wardle made the top price of £22,000 at the Raford House contents sale conducted by Mealy's last Tuesday, while another oil Confederates - A Hound Retrieving a Hare for Young Man with Gun by Briton Riviere sold for £13,000. Among furniture lots, a George III inlaid mahogany serving table originally from the Speaker's diningroom at the Irish House of Commons made £12,000 as did a Regency telescopic mahogany dining table with five spare leaves. Some £8,500 was paid for a 14-branch glass chandelier in two tiers; £7,250 for a pair of cast-iron gothic-style crested andirons; £7,000 for a set of 10 Chippendale-style dining chairs including two carvers; £6,800 for a walnut bachelor's chest and £6,000 for both a pair of green bronze planters and a mid-19th century oil by Frederick Bacon Barwell called A Reconciliation.
Marquetry cabinet makes top price
At £10,500, a William & Mary oyster-veneered marquetry cabinet on a stand was the best-selling lot at the contents sale of Killashee House earlier this month. Conducted by Mullen's, the auction saw private buyers snap up the finest items such as a pair of late 19th century flame mahogany commodes and a mid-19th century Louis XVstyle kingwood and burr walnut bureau by Gillows, both of which sold for £10,000 each. Some £9,500 was paid for an early 19th century Dutch mahogany and floral marquetry bureau, £8,500 for a giltwood console table and mirror and £7,500 for a Regency rosewood breakfast table. A kingwood bonheur du jour made £6,600 and both a William IV mahogany bookcase and a Victorian mahogany and rosewood library table £6,500. Two items of furniture original to the house, a Victorian oak gothic cabinet and an oak dining table, sold for £6,200 and £4,800 respectively.
O'Neill oil fetches £15,000
Figures in a Landscape, an oil on board by Daniel O'Neill sold for £15,000 earlier this month at the sale of Irish art held by Ross's of Belfast. Three lots by William Conor sold for £10,000 on this occasion; A Tune on a Fiddle, Fun at the Fair and Connemara Girl. Another Daniel O'Neill, called Val, made £9,000 while George Campbell's Autumn, Donegal went for £3,500. Other prices at this sale: £3,400 for Charles McAuley's A Chat in the Glens; £3,300 for Tom Carr's Sheep Farm, Co Down; and £2,600 for Charles McAuley's Making Ready. All prices given here are in sterling.
Victorian bookcases sell for £3,000
A pair of Victorian mahogany bookcases sold for £3,000 at the recent sale in Youghal, Co Cork of the contents of the Christian Brothers property in the town. At the same sale, a Victorian mahogany bookcase cabinet fetched £2,400, a Victorian mahogany mirror-backed sideboard £2,300, a Regency rosewood brass-inlaid card table £2,000, an oak case grandfather clock £1,300 and a William IV breakfast table £1,100.
Brisk bidding for Victorian stools
Brisk bidding saw Waterford auctioneer R.J. Keighery fetch £3,000 for two Victorian window stools at a recent sale in Tramore. A rosewood centre table went for £2,500, a set of six Strahan dining chairs for £1,900, an inlaid grandfather clock for £1,450 and an inlaid breakfront credenza for £1,000.
