Congreve sale tops €2.25m

THE sale at Mount Congreve made €2.25m at hammer. The clear inference to be drawn from the thousands who crammed three days of viewing which began last Saturday was that this sale by Mealys in association with Christie’s would not be cheap.

A Regency Carlton House desk at €82,000 bought in Ireland was the main lot sold. It may not stay in this country. Oriental ceramics sold feverishly on the web to buyers in mainland China and Hong Kong and to the English trade on the telephone at prices way over estimate. A blue and white meiping vase made €50,000 over an estimate of €12,000 and was the most expensive individual piece of ceramic sold. With a hairline crack it had been converted to a lamp and was in an upstairs bedroom at Mount Congreve.

The Dublin buyer who got a 1969 Rolls Royce for €46,000 at hammer, to which about 25% must be added to cover fees, thought he got a bargain, but bargains were thin on the ground. Many items sold for prices way above their high estimates. This was apparent at all levels, from a ten light George III 18th century chandelier which made €44,000 over a top estimate of €15,000 to a set of brass fire irons which made €1,050 over a top estimate of €400 and a Regency bowfront chest which made €2,800 over an estimate of €400. A UK purchaser, possibly a museum, acquired the Schreiber collection of salt glaze ceramics for €55,000 at hammer. This lot was a once off.

There were some lots for around the €500 mark, such as a pair of early 19th century cut glass butter tubs (€340), a 19th century steel fender (€500), an Aubusson-style flat woven rug (€420), a Victorian mantle clock (€340) and a mahogany sutherland table (€340). But there should have been more. Others made above estimate prices because of rarity.

Included among these is a small but exquisite Louis XV-style kingwood jardiniere, just over two feet wide and 11 inches high which made €2,300 over a top estimate of €1,200 and a neatly sized George I green and gilt japanned c1720 kneehole desk which made €11,000 over an estimate of €3,000-€5,000.

There is always a premium at major house sales. Curtains performed extraordinarily well. Two pairs of cream damask curtains estimated at €700-€1,000 sold for €2,800, two pairs of green foliate patterned curtains estimated at €200-€300 sold for €1,000, five pairs of cream-striped wood curtains made €5,400 over a top estimate of €1,200 and three pairs of heavy pink and ivory ground curtains made €2,700 over a top estimate €800.

A collection of 32 albumen photographs of Egypt from 1855, some of the earliest photographic images of Karnak, Dendor, Kom Ombo, Philae, Luxur and Edfoo and other renowned sites, made €9,000 over a top estimate of €7,000. Isaac Ware’s 1738 translation of the original Italian edition of Andrea Palladio’s Architecture made €8,500 over a top estimate of €4,500.