NOSTALGICS who still pine for the old Brown Thomas department store on Dublin's Grafton Street will be interested to learn that a number of fittings from the shop interior are included in next Thursday's fine art sale at the James Adam Salesrooms. Particularly notable are a pair of Chinese bronze vases, which are just over five foot high. With dragons and clouds in raised relief and set on wooden bases, the two are expected to make in the region of £4,000-£6,000.
Also from Brown Thomas is a pair of painted plaster statuettes of Burke and Goldsmith after the bronze originals outside Trinity College, Dublin, they carry a pre-sale estimate of £1,500-£2,000.
The most important lot in the Adam's auction is a superb giltwood pier mirror attributed to F. & J. Booker, with broken scroll pediment and Corinthian columns on either side of the glass. This will be the second time it has passed through the same auction house, since Adam's was responsible for disposing of the mirror as part of a house contents sale at Ballyglunip Park, Co Galway, in 1965. On that occasion, it made £130, next week the mirror is expected to sell for £15000-£20,000.
Almost as handsome is an Empire, brass-inlaid cheval mirror, with an estimate of £5,000-£7,000, and a pair of 19th century painted and gilded sidetables, which ought to make £4,000 £6,000. Other lots worth noting in this sale include, a matching pair of early 19th century mahogany bookcases by Strahan, each more than nine feet high (£6,000-£9,000); and a mahogany bureau desk with elaborately decorated interior (£3,000).
