Collector's treasures in Adam's sale

Glass, paintings, silver and furniture are included in the collection of the late Beaufield Mews owner, Jill Cox. It goes on sale this week

ONE of the best-known restaurants in south Dublin, the Beaufield Mews in Stillorgan, first opened in 1948 – in a converted coach-house – and is still going strong. Unusually, the premises housed both a restaurant and an antiques shop run by the proprietor Jill Cox, who died last December.

Her daughter Julie Cox has taken over the restaurant – which continues to operate – but announced the closure of the antiques shop and the sale of her late mother’s collection.

Adam's will auction The Collection of the Late Jill Coxin Dublin next Wednesday, September 7th. The fine art auctioneers said she had "a most eclectic but wide-ranging taste and was highly regarded amongst her peers as a knowledgeable and astute dealer".

The sale features over 800 lots including furniture, silver, pictures, porcelain and, her forte, Irish glass, and includes stock from the shop and her home in Sandycove. In a catalogue note, Julie Cox writes about her mother’s unstuffy approach to collecting: “Although she treasured all her gems, she didn’t allow them to become museum pieces stuffed in the attic out of sight. She insisted we use the Mason Ironstone dinner service for tea, even though we would be ordering a Chinese takeaway! And the heavy 18th-century oak diningroom table had to withstand dancing on it, as happened many a time. There were no trophy pieces in her collection.”

The auction is split into two sessions. Part 1 gets under way at 10.30am with silver, furniture, china and glass, pictures and prints going under the hammer.

Among the highlights are a selection of early 19th century Cork glass decanters; a pair of Irish 19th century, cut-glass oval, small butter cooler tureens, (€800-€1,200); a collection of 19th-century green, fluted pharmacist’s bottles (€200-€300); a set of four Irish silver George III neo-classical oval salt cellars, Dublin 1815, mark of Christopher Haines, (€400-€600).

An extensive collection of Belleek porcelain includes a “First Period” Neptune pattern tea service (€1,500-€2,000) and, a rare, “Second Period” commemorative vase decorated with portrait medallions, depicting Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith (€800-€1,200). A selection of Staffordshire Pottery pieces includes a figure of Charles Stewart Parnell shown as a Celtic warrior, with a club in one hand and an imagined Home Rule flag (€200-€300).

A Victorian Killarney-ware inlaid library table is decorated with motifs of an Irish wolfhound, the crown and harp, and the thistle, rose and shamrock and is estimated at €3,000-€5,000.

Part II of the sale, which begins at 6.30pm, features 175 Irish paintings. The highest-priced lot is an oil-on-board by Daniel O'Neill, titled The Decision(€25,000-€35,000), but there's a wide range of much more affordable pieces, including works by Harry Kernoff, Grace Henry, Sir William Orpen and Percy French.

There's a wonderfully evocative painting of a saleroom titled The Auction Buyersby Ena Douglas (€1,000-€1,500) and an amusing watercolour of Catholic clergymen as ballet dancers, Pas de Dieuby Eamonn O'Doherty (€400-€600).

Viewing begins tomorrow afternoon at 1pm at Adam’s, 26 St Stephen’s Green and continues all day on bothMonday and Tuesday.

The catalogue costs €20 but is free to download at adams.ie.