Auction houses often highlight the sustainability dimension to purchasing second hand goods at auction.
“By buying antique or second-hand furniture and furnishing at auction, you are helping combat fast furniture waste problems while acquiring well made, quality pieces built to last,” according to the catalogue of Adam’s At Home current online auction.
In a 2025 academic paper, How “Fast” is Fast Furniture?, Nottingham Trent University researchers Katyn Furmston and Naomi Braithwaite teased out the phenomenon.
“The global furniture industry is valued at over $579 billion yet more than 12 million tonnes of furniture is discarded in landfills each year,” they write. They also suggest that the significant waste generated by furniture is often overlooked compared with other goods.
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In Ireland, the Environmental Protection Agency has calculated that furniture makes up 21 per cent of waste in household skips and 35 per cent in commercial skips. But the vast majority of furniture in skips is broken.
Fast furniture is driven by rapid production, quick turnover and disposability, but Furmston and Braithwaite argue that it is perhaps a more consumer-driven than industry-defined phenomenon.
And while their research found that people usually only discarded furniture when it was broken, there were nevertheless trends in interior design that drove consumer choices to redecorate spaces – particularly livingrooms – more often than in the past.
Back to the Adam’s auction. Interior designers and homeowners seeking diningroom and sittingroom chairs and tables will have a wide selection to choose from at the auction, which closes on Tuesday, February 24th, from 11am. Selected items include eight oak and elmwood Windsor-type low chairs (€600-€1,000); a William IV mahogany and button-back navy leather upholstered chair (€400-€600); and two brown leather club chairs (€2,500-€3,000), all of which appear to be in good condition. A Victorian oak twin pedestal writing desk (€300-€500) could add a touch of tradition to a home office.
Three framed needlework samplers – including one completed by 10-year-old Sarah Clay, with vignettes of trees plants and text of the poem The Rose (€500-€700) are among the more unusual items. Needlework samplers were functional records of embroidery stitches, patterns and motifs stitched on to fabric. Often used as an educational tool, they were most prominent in the 18th and 19th centuries. Examples of samplers are held in collections at the National Museum of Ireland-Country Life in Turlough Park, Castlebar, Co Mayo, and at the National Museum of Ireland – Decorative Arts and History, at Collins Barracks in Dublin.
The At Home auction also has an interesting range of 19th- and early-20th-century French and American posters. These highly collectible prints are suitable for homes, cafes, restaurants and offices. The lithographic print of art nouveau Belgian architect Paul Hankar by his friend Paul Crespin is one well-known piece (€400-€600).
The auction also has a significant amount of Irish and English silverware from candlesticks and goblets to salvers, bowls and trays. A 24 place setting of silver-thread-pattern canteen of Sheffield cutlery has an estimate of €10,000-€15,000, and weighs almost 450 troy ounces.
For anyone intending to buy items for their current metal value, it’s important to note that a troy ounce is a specialised imperial unit used exclusively for weighing precious metals such as gold, silver or platinum. Equivalent to 31.1035g, about 10 per cent heavier than the standard 28.35g equivalent, it is the standard unit for bullion or investment trading worldwide. The term originated from the medieval market town of Troyes, southeast of Paris.
Staying with precious metals, John Weldon of John Weldon Auctioneers in Cow’s Lane, Temple Bar, is particularly excited about the 1969 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe trophy (€8,000-€12,000), which he is selling at auction on Tuesday, February 24th.
The trophy was won by Levmoss, an Irish-bred thoroughbred horse trained by Seamus McGrath in Glencairn, Co Dublin, and ridden by Australian jockey Bill Williamson. Levmoss started as a 52/1 outsider in the race where the English star Park Top was fancied.
The trophy is likely to be of significant interest to racing historians, as Levmoss was just the second of eight Irish-trained horses to win France’s most famous race. The four-year-old colt had already won the Ascot Gold Cup and Prix due Cadran, another Longchamp race, before winning the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe race in 1969.
The trophy, which bears the mark of Parisian maker Émile Puiforcat, weights about 5,100g, the majority of which is silver with gold gilding. “I believe the trophy would ideally belong to a public institution, such as the National Museum or the museum at the National Stud,” says Weldon. adams.ie, jwa.ie
What did it sell for?
Gujaraiti Bag by Patricia Jorgensen
Estimate €300-€400
Hammer price €340
Auction house Lot100
Urban Landscape by Gustave Schleicher
Estimate €300-€500
Hammer price Not sold
Auction house Lot100
Kitchen Counter by Jane O’Malley
Estimate €200-€300
Hammer price €200
Auction house Lot100
Marilyn Monroe screenprint by Andy Warhol
Estimate €800-€1,000
Hammer price €800
Auction house Lot100
