When a home has been painstakingly created, its dispersal is always a poignant moment. So the auction of Sybil Connolly's property on Wednesday will be a distinctly melancholic occasion as the pictures, china, furniture and silver assembled by the designer are sold. Until her death last May, 71 Merrion Square in Dublin had been Connolly's home - and a showcase for her many talents - for four decades.
The delectable mews at the end of the garden has been largely emptied of its contents, moved to the main building where they await inspection by potential purchasers. In the ground- and first-floor rooms, disorder reigns in place of the former calm, as disparate items are prepared for sale. Security staff and members of the auctioneering team have taken over Connolly's home and only the presence of James Sheridan, her butler for more than 30 years, provides a link with the past.
When she bought 71 Merrion Square, the designer was at the height of her career. The interior was designed to convey an impression of effortless grace, and close scrutiny is needed to reveal what hard work actually went on. The large raised terrace at the back of the building, for example, is paved with glass bricks to admit plenty light into the extended workroom occupying the basement. It was here, well away from her clients' eyes, that the dresses designed by Connolly were made. She always called her Merrion Square home, "the house that linen built", and evidence of that linen can easily be found. In the pleated form which was her unofficial trade mark, the fabric remains hung on the walls of the first-floor reception rooms, its original lavender long since faded into a dull taupe. The floors continue to be covered by the Donegal carpets specially woven for the house, while above the marble fireplace can still be seen the portrait of Connolly - wearing one of her own pleated handkerchief linen dresses - painted by Sean O'Sullivan in 1958. This has been donated to the National Gallery of Ireland.
Some of her original dresses from the 1950s, in luscious shades of deepest aubergine, salmon pink and midnight blue, are preserved at the top of the building in her private quarters, reached by a wrought-iron spiral staircase. These clothes are due to be sold in London next year, when some of them might be bought by Irish institutions. But much of the rest of the house's contents will be on offer next week, the entire collection a testament to Connolly's acquisitive and well-trained eye. As her great friend Eleanor Lambert writes of 71 Merrion Square in a foreword to the sale catalogue, "with Sybil's hospitality its rooms glowed with superb examples of the furniture, silver, Irish delft and textiles she had collected, and in many cases, rediscovered and restored".
Not least among these possessions was a substantial amount of silver, much of it Georgian and some Irish. Among the latter pieces are an oval sauceboat from the hand of Matthew West of Dublin in 1787 and a set of 10 Hanoverian pattern table forks bearing the mark of Dubliner James Keating from 1782. Pieces such as these and, more unusually, a Georgian oval sauceboat the body of which is made from a Cowie shell, demonstrate Connolly's taste for the dainty and richly worked.
She was most definitely not a minimalist, achieving effect, in her own designs as in her home, by pulling a number of often disparate elements together. And she was not afraid of making bold statements. Included in Wednesday's sale is a portrait of the designer by Simon Elwes in which she is wearing a substantial necklace of Cabouchon stones with central teardrop motif and matching earrings made by David Webb of New York. These pieces were not made for the reticent dresser.
Other examples of Connolly's jewellery being auctioned are equally splashy, such as a three-strand art deco-style diamante and faux pearl necklace which knots at the base, or any one of the several pairs of 19th-century white metal and cut-glass shoe buckles she collected. To wear these is to be noticed.
By contrast, her choice of furniture was essentially conservative, as though chosen not to offend the sensibilities of visiting clientele. Whereas at the top of the building, Connolly's decorating skills were allowed free rein - the walls covered in dense trellis-patterned wallpaper or painted to look as though draped with fabric - in the public rooms a more classical order held sway. A fondness for French taste is reflected in a pair of Louis XVI-style painted fruit-wood fauteuils and a Louis XV-style fruit-wood-framed upholstered seat, and there are also some very handsome gilt-wood consoles and pier glasses. But best of all are probably the pieces of lacquer furniture, in particular a 19th-century Chinese bonheur de jour, its interior richly filled with drawers and pigeonholes.
China, too, fascinated Connolly, who for many years worked with Tiffany & Co to produce distinctive lines of tableware. Some of these are on offer in the sale, such as a large dinner service in her "Merrion Square" pattern and a part tea service from the "Mrs Delany's flowers" range. Of course, Mrs Delany, that friend of Dean Swift and later of Fanny Burney and the creator of flower pictures from paper cut-outs, was one of Connolly's great enthusiasms.
But while in later years she seemed to be better known for her work with Tiffany's and for the promotion of Irish craft in a variety of forms, it was as a fashion designer that Connolly first achieved fame, and for this she should be remembered.
In this week's sale are a number of boxes of her original sketches on artist's board for clothes including evening dresses, suits and coats. Meticulous in everything she undertook, these boxes each contain photocopies of their contents which are clearly marked on the outside of each. Then there are the surviving rolls of Connolly's pleated handkerchief linen, manufactured by Baird's of Co Down, all of them still encased in protective tissue and produced in a wide variety of dazzling colours from mint green to rose pink. Unfold one of these bales and the essence of the designer's taste and flair is apparent. The material on the walls of 71 Merrion Square is to remain in situ but 15 lots of pleated linen, the fabric which built Connolly's home, will be offered for sale on Wednesday. To purchase one of these is to come into the ownership of an important part of Ireland's fashion history.
The Sybil Connolly Collection will be auctioned by James Adam in association with Bonhams on Wednesday at 10.30 a.m. on the premises of the James Adam Sale- rooms, St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2. Viewing at 71 Merrion Square begins tomorrow at 11 a.m.