Mealy's had a packed auction room at Killuragh Glen near Mallow in Co Cork last Tuesday where furniture and paintings sold to the tune of almost £300,000. The most expensive lot of the day, a Sir William Beachey portrait of Prince Platoff, was sold to an English dealer for £10,000, five times its original estimate. The portrait had attracted tremendous interest in the run-up to the sale, according to George Mealy, as had the fine furniture, much of which had come to Killuragh from country houses in England and France. Dealers lost out to private buyers from Dublin and Cork for many of the lots, and prices, in general, were well up on the estimates. For instance, a George IV mahogany dining table fetched £7,250, against a top estimate of £3,000; a fine early 20th century Tabriz carpet sold for £6,250; and a pair of walnut, marquetry and gilt metal mounted side cabinets made £5,800.

A Regency pollard oak and ebony strung sofa table made £4,800; a pair of Egyptian revival, mahogany dwarf, open bookcases sold for £4,000, as did an 18th century French ormulu wall clock by Parisian clockmaker Charles Baltazar.

Other prices were: an 18th century walnut bureau, £3,800; an 18th century half-length portrait of Timothy Sterne (brother of Laurence Sterne), £3,200; a pair of Georgian silver mounted slope-top cutlery cases, £3,000; and a good George III mahogany military bureau, £2,800; a pair of unusual mahogany and parcel gilt screens, inset with 24 original engraved plates from The Gentleman's Recreation, c 1770, £2,100.