Adele Astaire's star shines

BLAME Downton Abbeyand Upstairs Downstairsperhaps, but the lives of the early 20th century aristocracy continue to fascinate.

A painting of Lord Charles Cavendish and Adele Astaire (Lady Cavendish) in the grounds of Lismore Castle, Co Waterford,sold for more than five times its highest estimate at auction in England on Thursday afternoon. The oil-on-canvas sold for £7,800 (€9,375) at John Nicholson's fine art auctioneers in Haslemere, Surrey. The work, painted by a little-known American artist Nicholas de Molas during a visit to Lismore, had a pre-sale estimate of just £800-£1,500 (€961-€1,800).

It was bought by a telephone bidder and the auctioneer would not say if the buyer was Irish.

In 1932 Lord Charles Cavendish, second son of the 9th duke of Devonshire, married Adele Astaire, a former vaudeville star and sister of the Hollywood dancer Fred Astaire. The couple set up home in Ireland in the castle owned (to this day) by the Devonshire family.

The painting, dated 1933 and measuring 44in by 56in, shows the couple on the banks of the river Blackwater with her ladyship being presented with an improbably large salmon by her husband. Estate workers are seen in the background hauling a net from the river.

Lord Charles Cavendish died in 1944. Adele Astaire subsequently left Ireland and returned to the United States where she remarried. She died in 1981. The painting was, apparently, consigned to sale by her niece.