A feast of curiosities at Mealy's summer auction

With 1,200 lots, Mealy’s summer auction is a two-day event featuring eyecatching items ranging from a poignant Boer war memento to Molly Malone’s head

A POIGNANT memento of the now almost-forgotten second Boer War (1899-1902) features in the summer Fine and Decorative Art sale at Mealy’s next week.

The green bedspread is of a type hand-sewn by women to honour soldiers from the British Empire who had gone to South Africa to fight the Boers – the Afrikaans-speaking descendents of Dutch settlers who were trying to create independent republics in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State.

The fabric is embroidered with images of butterflies, flowers and cobwebs and various names – once known to every schoolboy – including Mafeking (a town which was famously besieged) and Roberts (the India-born Anglo-Irish Field Marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts). Despite its age, the item is in excellent condition.

Rhonda Mealy, who has researched the item for the family-run auctioneering firm, said the bedspread was being sold by a woman from an Anglo-Irish family whose ancestors had served in the British Army during the second Boer War.

Most intriguingly, according to family lore the bedspread was reputedly rescued from the sea in May 1915 as it floated away from the sinking ship RMS Lusitaniawhich was torpedoed by the Germans off the Old Head of Kinsale during the first World War. But this assertion has not been fully authenticated by the owner who inherited the bedspread from her grandmother. The estimate is €600-€900.

A grandfather clock from Althorp, the childhood English home of the late Princess Diana, is estimated at €8,500-€9,500. The Irish longcase eight-day clock was apparently acquired in Dublin by her ancestor, the fifth Earl Spencer, when he served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland on two occasions during Queen Victoria’s reign. The clock was sold last summer during the Althorp Attic Sale at Christie’s and made £5,000 (€5,524) – double its highest estimate. It will be interesting to see if it has appreciated further in value during the ensuing 12 months.

Other collectibles include a set of pre-historic giant Irish deer antlers found in a Midlands coal-shed (€4,000-€6,000) and – a trophy piece of a very different kind – the Head of Molly Malone (€20,000-€30,000).

When the sculpture of Molly Malone, destined for Grafton Street, was cast in 1988, two identical heads were made from the original mould in order to hedge against problems during casting. The “spare head” has been in storage for 23 years in the studio of sculptor Jeanne Rynhart in Bantry, Co Cork. It is one of a number of pieces by the artist in this sale which marks her first appearance in the Irish auction market.

Among more affordable lots are a Victorian oleograph (19th century print) titled Children by a Stream (€200-€300) and a 21-piece art deco tea service (€70-€90).

Porcelain collectors will be drawn to various lots of Hungarian hand-painted Herend while gardeners will be interested in the selection of antique granite and limestone troughs.

Mealy's Summer Fine and Decorative Art Sale:viewing begins tomorrow at Mealy's in Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny. The sale, with 1,200 lots, takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday, July 5th and 6th