Daniel O’Connell’s shaving kit sold at Sotheby’s

Daniel O'Connell's shaving kit sold at Sotheby's in London this week for £1,750 (€2,092), below the estimate of £2,000-
£3,000. Sotheby's said a descendant of O'Connell's sold the mahogany case, lined with red silk, which contains 12 silver- topped glass jars and containers, each engraved with the O'Connell crest of a stag's head, as well as 10 steel implements, two with ivory handles, and, a leather-backed mirror. The case was the 19th-century equivalent of a toilet bag and was known by the French term, nécessaire. It was made in Paris circa 1840 by Charles-August Péret.

Sotheby's said O'Connell's nécessaire was "simple and unpretentious by the standards of the time" and would have accompanied him "during the dramatic final years of his public life" when he travelled around Ireland to speak at monster meetings calling for the repeal of the Act of Union, and went back and forth to England to attend the House of Commons.