Sold last month for more than £1 million, the Kilshane estate in Tipperary will be offering its contents at auction next Tuesday. Dating from circa 1830, the main house is most notable for its exceptionally large Turner-designed conservatory, which was added 50 years later. The property was bought from a religious order in the 1980s by South African-born Ian Hurst and his wife, and the majority of items for the Mealy's sale come from them.
However, in addition there are a number of lots provided by Mr Hurst's mother-inlaw, Mrs Trench, who has lived on the estate, as well as lots from Ambrose Congreve of Mount Congreve and Viscount de Vesci. The Congreve items, like their predecessors in other Mealy auctions, are particularly fine. An ebonised clock dating from circa 1675, for example, and less than a 18 inches high, is signed by Pieter Visbagh of The Hague and has ornate chased gilt-brass decoration; it carries a pre-sale estimate of £12,000-£18,000. A number of pictures for sale come from Mount Congreve, such as a large pastoral landscape by Francesco Zuccarelli in an ornate gilt frame (£30,000-£50,000) and a handsome 17th-century portrait of a gentleman by Jan de Baen (£6,000-£8,000). Also from the Congreve collection is a rococo-style kingwood ormolu-mounted bureau plat (circa 1850), formerly the property of Lady Harcourt (£4,000-£6,000); a Kernan carpet in shades of rose red and indigo dating from circa 1930 (£5,000-£7,000); and an 18th-century Brussels tapestry with the figures of a man and a woman at its centre (£1,500-£2,500). Not unexpectedly, this auction will feature furniture, not least of which is a very fine early Georgian gilt side chair, probably Irish since it has typical grotesque lion masks on the front legs as well as claw feet. Such a piece of work deserves to make its upper estimate of £3,000, as does a Queen Anne walnut bureau bookcase with rectangular mirror panel door on its upper section; understandably, this carries the higher figure of £14,000-£17,000. Just as likely to find a buyer is a pair of 19th-century gilt mirrors, each carrying a coloured classical engraving in the upper section above the large rectangular mirror and flanked by turned columns with Corinthian capitals (£12,000-£15,000). More substantial pieces include a 19thcentury marble table, its rectangular top inlaid with an arrangement of different coloured specimen marble pieces (£6,000-£8,000) and an 1872 marble statue of a winged putto sheltering under an animal skin, signed by Italian sculptor Giovanni Maria Benzoni (£14,000-£16,000).
Then there is a pair of gilt metal and bronze Louis XVI candelabra which came from the sale at Powerscourt House in September 1984; this lot is expected to fetch £12,000-£16,000. Less dazzling but more practical, a Victorian oak library bookcase has an estimate of £3,000-£4,000, a pair of 19th-century brass-mounted boulle side cupboards (£2,000-£3,000) and a continental walnut and marquetry bureau cabinet (£8,000-£10,000).
And for collectors of Irish furniture, there are a few other lots worth noting, such as a William IV mahogany side or serving table attributed to Mack Williams & Gibton (£1,500-£2,500) and a George III-style mahogany open bookcase attributed to James Hicks (£5,000-£7,000).
A view of the drawingroom furniture in the main house on the Kilshane estate.
Portrait of a Gentleman by Jan de Baen (estimate, £6,000-£8,000), one of the paintings to be sold next Tuesday at the Kilshane auction.
