Family haul of Irish glass for auction

A collection of Irish glass which has passed through five generations of the family who started the glass industry in Waterford 230 years ago is going up for auction next week.

And a 200-year-old wooden cabinet decorated with seashells could fetch more than €10,000 at this upcoming auction.

The decanters, scent bottles, glasses and other items were all once owned by members of the Penrose family.

William Penrose and his uncle George established the Waterford Glass House in 1783 and, although it passed out of the family hands by 1799, the name remains synonymous with the local industry. Its revival in 1947 that made Waterford a global brand came almost a century after the Penrose-founded factory shut down.

Many of the 16 lots — some probably made in the Waterloo factory or other of Cork’s early 19th-century glassworks — are inscribed with initials of the Penroses or the Robinson family that William’s daughter Elizabeth married into in 1805.

Also being sold is a cabinet which she elaborately decorated with shells and tiny glass animals around €1800, valued at more than €10,000. The entire collection is expected to attract bids from Irish glass collectors, museums and other cultural institutions at the auction in England on January 22.

“Because it has such a strong national connection, it would be lovely to think at least some of the collection might go back to Ireland,” said David MacMullen, one of six brothers selling the glass after their mother Priscilla died last year.

She was the second wife of Alfred Grahame MacMullen, born in Cork in 1891 to a family involved in the R&H Hall milling business. He fought with the Devonshire Regiment in World War I and returned to Exeter to rejoin in 1939, but although too old for active service he met Priscilla in the officer’s mess and they later married.

Auctioneer Nic Saintey of Exeter firm Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood says there is interest in the shell cabinet from Ireland, and inquiries from the US and England about the wider collection. He admitted some guide prices — ranging from around €60 to €100 for five glasses and goblets, up to around €1,000 for a Waterford glass decanter — may be conservative, as some items have faults: like a scent bottle whose neck is held together by tape.

“But it’s all about the provenance and that they have been handled and owned by the Penrose family,” he said.

Further authenticity is added by the fact that many pieces feature in a leading reference book on Irish glass. David MacMullen remembers author Phelps Warren visiting his home and the photographs being taken for the 1971 publication.

“We thought about what to do with it all last year, and with none of our children really interested we decided to put the entire collection up for sale,” said David.

It was shipped to England after his grandmother from Cork died in 1952 and he remembers looking at the shell-decorated cabinet as a child.

“Swans swam on lakes created from mirrors, made for Elizabeth Penrose in the glass works, and a bouquet of the most intricately-created flowers was mounted on the back of the cabinet,” he said.

“It really is a wondrous thing, the story goes that she spent many years making it and it is populated with glass animals created for her in the Waterford glass house,” said David.

John Hearne, a Waterford glass expert and editor of 2011 book Glassmaking in Ireland, said it was interesting that the collection ended up in Exeter as George Gatchell who owned the Waterford factory when it closed in 1851, died there.

“There wouldn’t be too much Penrose glass around, just authenticating it is extremely difficult. None of these, I would guess, have ever been seen in public before and hopefully all of these pieces will return to Ireland as full collections.” he said.

More details on the auctioneers’ site: www.bhandl.co.uk/collections/penrose