Underestimating the unionists

LAST Sunday's auction held by Town & Country at its Dublin premises realised a number of fine prices among the 200 odd lots. Not least among them was the £1,300 made by a 19th century rosewood sofa table and the £1,150 paid for a Georgian fold over tea table. Other excellent prices included £1,000 for a Victorian two door library bookcase.

At Hamilton Osborne King's auction in Blackrock, Dublin, on Wednesday afternoon, the biggest surprise was the £1,300 eventually paid by a Dublin buyer for a presentation casket dating from 1913 and carrying facsimile signatures of all the unionist MPs of the period, including Edward Carson. The piece carried a much more modest estimate of £250-£350.

The majority of pieces in this sale came from the Cairns family home on Dublin's Shrewsbury Road and the late Brigadier Wingfield's house, Brownstone Park, in Co Meath. Of approximately 350 lots, 94 per cent were sold, with £3,200 being made by a mahogany cross banded economy dining table dating from around 1800. The same price was reached by a Hagspiel boudoir grand piano, while an 18th century mahogany slopefront bureau cabinet sold for £1,900. Other notable prices included £1,850 for an early 19th century French, carved wood clockcase, £1,800 for a kingwood small commode by Vassou and £1,600 for a late 18th century mahogany bookcase.