Highly valuable 18th century Irish furniture sometimes turns up in the unlikeliest and humblest of places, especially in the vicinity of historic houses which were burned or abandoned with the emergence of the new State in the 1920s.
So says Desmond FitzGerald, the Knight of Glin, president of the Irish Georgian Society and Irish representative for Christie's. For instance, items have turned up in the environs of Dromore Castle outside Limerick over the past 15 years which subsequently sold for hundreds of thousands of pounds, he says. u100,000s, he says.
The quays of Dublin were "awash" with valuable Irish furniture and furnishings in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s and much of it was bought by American dealers and exported to the US.
Irish furniture and furnishings of the period are gaining widespread appreciation on the international stage. For instance, on February 6th the first seminar on Irish furniture and furnishings is being held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, while a similar event is planned at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada on April 29th and 30th.
Meanwhile, Christie's in New York is holding an important sale next Thursday, of Irish decorative arts from the mid-18th to the early 19th century. It forms part of a sale entitled the "British" interior. "Perhaps we should have called it the Georgian interior," concedes Mr Angus Wilkie, an international representative of Christie's in New York. All items in the sale were sourced in the US "which is why the sale is of interest because there are bits and pieces of Irish furniture lurking here," he says.
A highlight of the sale is a side table from Powerscourt House in Co Wicklow which Mr Wilkie regards, in certain respects, as the most interesting item in the sale: "It's got a great provenance coming from Powerscourt and it has a wonderful grimacing lion's mask".
Lord Powerscourt recounts the purchase of this table from a dealer, Mrs Brady, in Liffey Street, Dublin, in his 1903 book, A Description and History of Powerscourt. He writes: "I was looking at it and admiring it, and I offered her less than the price she put upon it, and she said `Oh! Now you had better take it; you will never see another like it, and the general will be here directly and he will have it soon enough'," - the general being the late General Charles Crawford Frazer, V.C., at the time commanding the British Army in Dublin.
Christie's estimate for the table is $40,000-$60,000 (#35,000 to #52,000), presumably a tad more expensive than the sum paid to Mrs Brady. An 18th century Irish mahogany side table is richly carved on the apron or front frieze. In the centre there's a pieced, open basket - "it's carved like a basket, holding flowers," explains Mr Wilkie. And then the basket is flanked by eagles' heads. Their beaks are supporting floral scrolls. It's as if the basket of flowers is issuing or emanating garlands of wreaths and flowers and then these are held up by the eagles. And this is all carved in low relief. "It's very, very fine, rich carving," he says. (Estimate $30,000-$50,000).
A small Irish Georgian satinwood wheel barometer/thermometer is signed by Del Vecchio, "a known Dublin maker", Mr Wilkie says, (estimate: $5,000-$8,000).
The most expensive lot is a giltwood mirror from about 1755. It has "a fantastic carved bird on the top, and there are also dolphins, scrolls, flowers and urns, within an architectural framework". Mr Wilkie says the sides have branches and rock-work. "It's pierced carving - it's not solid, it's pierced through - and at the base of the mirror it's flanked by two dolphins on either side," he says. (Estimate: $80,000-$120,000).
