THE high value of Irish silver internationally is reaffirmed by estimates for two pieces at a Christie's auction of European silver set to take place in London on St Patrick's Day.
Mr Harry Williams-Bulkeley, head of the silver department at Christie's King Street, London, says old Irish silver is highly valued because "a lot less Irish silver survived. The Dublin assay office was a big operation but I think a lot of it has been melted over the years or gone with families to the States or wherever. And when it does come up, it comes up much less frequently than English [silver] and there's a very strong market for it".
A set of three George IV Irish silver salvers or trays, the largest (25 and a quarter inches in diameter) bearing a rare engraving of the Customs House, carries an estimate of £25,000 to £35,000 sterling (€37,000 to €51,000). The maker's mark is James Fray and Alderman Jacob West, Dublin, 1824, with the engraving signed by J.R. Holbrook. Wreathed in a shamrock border with rose and thistle, symbolising Ireland, England and Scotland, are escutcheons or shields displaying water-deity heads, symbols for the Liffey, Shannon, Bann and Suir. These are flanked by trophies celebrating Ireland's agriculture (corn and implements), industry (beehive), trade (pennant, anchor and rudder) and commerce (ships and barrels). The smaller salvers (17 and threequarter inches in diameter) are chased with masks depicting other Irish rivers including the Boyne, Lee and Blackwater. Mr Williams-Bulkeley says the salvers are "amazing". "From an Irish point of view they're very important. Having an engraving of that quality at this date is very rare and extremely rare on Irish silver. You've got this guy Holbrook doing engraving and actually signing it. His signature appears on the piece. That's very rare."
The second piece of Irish silver in the forthcoming auction is a 24-inch high George III epergne or branched centre ornament for a dinner table. The maker's mark is thought to be that of Robert Breading, Dublin, 1787, and the elaborate piece weighs 205 ounces or 5,812 grams. You get very few Irish epergnes, he says. This one is of "lovely quality, sort of neo-classical and sort of chinoiserie" or Chinese style. It has a canopy with "bells hanging off it, like a Chinese pagoda, like a Chinese temple".
Estimated at between £40,000 and £60,000 sterling (€58,000 to €87,000), "the central bowl would probably be filled up with fruit and flowers and then the little baskets and dishes with fruit, flowers, sugared almonds or sweetmeats, all that kind of thing. And it would have sat in the centre of the dining room table, perhaps on a big silver stand", he says. Also of Irish interest in the sale is a Victorian silver-gilt sideboard dish set with hardstones, estimated at £25,000 to £35,000 sterling (€37,000 to €51,000). The oblong-shaped dish with octagonal panels belonged to the 7th viscount Powerscourt (1836-1904). It was sold at the Christie's sale in Powerscourt, Co Wicklow, in 1984.
"It's a great thing. It's a real example of great 19th century silversmithing. And it's interesting because you've got that mixture there of silver gilt and hard stones - agate and all that kind of thing - which is very much more of an earlier style which was revived in the 19th century. It's not an Irish piece.
"It's by Robert Garrard who was crown goldsmiths at the time and it's a really rich example of their work. And very much in keeping with the whole image the seventh viscount put forward at Powerscourt and the money he lavished on both the house and the garden," he says.
