Adam Clayton, U2's bass player, has a good eye for a rare Persian carpet but he won't be giving up his day job after his collection fell short of expectations at an international auction yesterday.
More than 60 carpets that have graced the floors and walls of Danesmoate House, where Mr Clayton lives just outside Dublin, went under the hammer at Christie's in London.
Billed as The Adam Clayton Collection of Carpets, 48 pieces fetched a total of £82,316, below the overall estimate of £95,000. Fourteen carpets went unsold.
The highest price of £8,365 was realised by a huge, almost-square, predominantly red carpet from northwest Persia dated to 1880 that had been estimated at £8,000 to £12,000.
Ms Louise Kendon, Christie's Oriental carpet specialist, described the collection as "very sweet" and said it was an impressive representation of a period of Persian rug-making history that had largely gone undocumented.
Most of the carpets were hand-woven in the mid and late 18th century in north-western Persia. The highlight was a large rug, described as a North West Persian kelleh and dated to 1800, and arguably one of the most beautiful of the period, which Ms Kendon said sold for £5,000, below its estimate of £6,000 to £8,000.