Later than usual, the Irish art sales season has now drawn to a close and it is possible to assess the past few months, seeing what has performed particularly well. The great weakness, not just this year but for several past, has been in the area of quality Irish furniture.
This was made apparent last May when Sotheby's, which usually offers a good amount of furniture in its annual London-based Irish sale, could find only a handful of Killarney pieces to include; members of the auction house's staff admitted that almost nothing was coming on to the market and that there were more potential buyers than vendors.
For both dealers and auctioneers, this has been a problem in recent years as the country's economy has boomed. The abundance of collectors cannot be satisfied since so much of the best Irish furniture was sold overseas during the middle decades of the last century when money was extremely scarce here. HOK Fine Art was fortunate in this respect to be offered items from Castle Leslie, Co Monaghan, for an important sale in late May. Of course, many of the best-selling lots from this house were not Irish but, reflecting the cosmopolitan interests of the Leslie family, came from a wide variety of countries.
However, among the Irish pieces which performed especially well here was a pair of mid-18th century mahogany presses, handsome sturdy pieces not especially elaborate but bearing the tell-tale detail of a carved shell at the centre of their shaped aprons. Expected to make between £6,000 and £10,000, the pair eventually went for £13,500, showing just how keen the bidding can be for good Irish furniture.
Even more remarkably, a late 18th century Irish oval mirror, its frame ornamented with blue studs interspersed with white panels bearing gilt stars, soared far past its pre-sale estimate of £4,000-£6,000 to make £30,000.
Wherever Irish furniture does turn up at auction it is guaranteed to attract plenty of bids. In mid-May, for example, Ross's of Belfast sold the contents of Ballyward Lodge, Co Down, former home of the late Wing Commander John Higginson. A number of lots were Irish, the finest probably being a circular rosewood centre table on tapered octagonal pillar resting on a platform base with brass bun feet. Carrying the mark of the well-known Dublin firm of Gillingtons, the table sold for £20,000 sterling, the best price for an Irish piece on this occasion.
Late last month, a few more such lots were offered by Mealy's during the course of a two-day sale in Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny. The top figure here was £30,000 paid for what the auctioneers called the Mount Trenchard Cabinet, an Irish mahogany kneehole writing cabinet dating from circa 1750 with two mirrored doors below a moulded swan-neck pediment centred on a cresting eagle.
As befitted such a handsome and substantial item, this had always been expected to do well but a lot at the same event which performed better than predicted was a mid-18th Irish yew and burryew kneehole desk with frieze drawer above a vacant compartment with shelf. Its top estimate of £3,000 was more than doubled when this item went for £7,500.
Similarly, a fine Regency period gilt and parcel ebony overmantle mirror made by Del Vecchio of Dublin and still holding both its original glass and, on the reverse, the manufacturer's label, made £4,600, considerably more than the expected figure of £2,000-£2,500.
What all these prices demonstrate is that an appetite exists among buyers for the best quality Irish furniture, especially of the 18th and early 19th century.
What the same sums also indicate is that supply cannot match demand and, therefore, whenever such pieces do come on the market, keen competition can be assured among bidders.
