Irish furniture set for a strong performance

Details of the fifth annual Sotheby's Irish Art Sale later this month are now available, with a selection of the work to be auctioned…

Details of the fifth annual Sotheby's Irish Art Sale later this month are now available, with a selection of the work to be auctioned going on view in Dublin next week. While there are many fine paintings on offer, also included are items of furniture which should do well. As was shown by the results from the Gowran Castle sale last Monday, there is considerable interest in and demand for Irish furniture. At this auction, conducted by Michael Donohue & Sons, a Regency mahogany serving table attributed to Mack, Williams & Gibton sold for £24,000, well above its estimate of £8,000-£10,000. In the same auction, a William IV Irish mahogany serving table fetched £10,000 and an Irish Regency console table in mahogany with marble top went under the hammer for £8,000.

As these prices indicate, the 40-odd lots of Irish furniture being sold by Sotheby's on May 21st ought to be well-received. The best pieces in this section of the auction date from the reigns of George IV and William IV, a period which used to be considered rather weak (usually by comparison with work from the previous century) but which is increasingly in favour.

Although there was something of a decline in demand for pieces from Irish cabinet makers in the years immediately following the 1800 Act of Union, by 1820 a house-building revival had occurred and this in turn led to increased orders for furniture which continued until the onset of the famine in the mid-1840s. As an examination of the Sotheby's lots shows, furniture from these decades can often be heavier in form than that of the 18th century but some decorative features remain consistent. So the cabriole legs terminating in paw feet of lot 1, a mahogany side-table dating from 1745 (£10,000-£15,000), appear also on lot 35, a circa 1830 mahogany serving table (£3,000-£3,500), as does the perennially popular scallop shell carving. The latter piece of furniture is just one of several in the sale, many of them in Irish variants of the neo-classical style. Lot 20, a console table from 1825, for example, has fine pillars of amboyna veneer, topped by composite capitals and terminating in heavy paw feet (£3,500-£4,500). Similarly, lot 27, a mahogany side-cabinet dating from circa 1820 has its pilasters with engine-turned brass collars concluding on paws feet (£4,500-£5,500). Some of the handsomest furniture lots still carry their original makers' labels. Number 30A is a rosewood library table from circa 1835 made by A. Morgan & Co (£2,500-£3,000). This firm worked from premises on Henry Street in Dublin and held royal warrants as cabinet-makers to both William IV and his successor, Queen Victoria.

Lot 30, a mahogany combined circular and D-end extending dining table which was originally from the old Children's Hospital in Dublin (£25,000-£35,000) was probably made for that institution by Williams & Gibton, the stamp of which it still carries. The precursor of Mack, Williams & Gibton in 1806, the company was appointed "Upholsterers & Cabinet Makers to His Majesty, His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant, and His Majesty's Board of Works". A carved giltwood and composition overmantel mirror, circa 1825 (lot 18, £2,500-£3,500), retains its trade label of Cornelius Callaghan, a carver, gilder and looking-glass manufacturer who is recorded as working from premises on Dublin's Clare Street for more than 20 years from 1822. Because of its size, furniture is not usually included in the Sotheby's preview, which focuses instead on paintings, with some examples of glassware, silver and ceramics. These may be seen next week at the Molesworth Gallery, 16 Molesworth Street, Dublin, from Tuesday until Saturday.