House contents that put Irish and world history in the frame

There’s much to tempt collectors at Fonsie Mealy’s sale next week, says Des O’Sullivan.

OFFERING everything from a portrait of Lord Tracton to the Dennis silver tray which recounts in Victorian detail the sterling efforts of a magistrate in Wicklow to repress insubordination along the borders of Wicklow, Carlow and Kildare in 1822, the Fortgranite house contents sale by Fonsie Mealy next Tuesday offers much to tempt collectors.

A portrait of James Dennis, Lord Tracton of Tracton Abbey, Co Cork, Chief Baron of the Exchequer.

Among more than 850 lots are a Qing dynasty cabinet, medals from both world wars, and a Boer War letter from Winston Churchill.

Fortgranite in Baltinglass, Co Wicklow, was the home of the Dennis family for three centuries. They were originally Swifts, related to Jonathan Swift, Dean of St Patrick’s, satirist and creator of Gulliver’s Travels, who changed their name to inherit an estate at Tracton in Cork. This inheritance was highlighted on these pages last week through lot 428, letters patent on vellum from King George III granting the title Baron Tracton to James Dennis, son of a timber merchant of Kinsale, who died childless in 1782.

The lavishly decorated Dennis silver tray.

The lavishly decorated Dennis silver tray, made in Dublin in 1822, was given by local bigwigs to Thomas Stratford Dennis “.... for his conspicuous Zeal and active intrepidity as a Magistrate of their County And for his successful exertions in repressing the spirit of insubordination and contempt for the Laws which prevailed along the borders of the Counties of Wicklow Carlow and Kildare in the year 1822”. That year marked an ongoing economic slump after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, a disastrous potato crop failure and agrarian unrest.

A carved hardwood Qing dynasty cabinet at Fonsie Mealy’s sale in Co Wicklow.

The hardwood Qing dynasty cabinet, bought in Hong Kong, is estimated at €2,000-€3,000. A portrait of Esther Johnson is estimated at €7,000-€10,000. She was Dean Swift’s Stella and rumoured to have been his wife. Viewing is at Fortgranite, 11am-6pm tomorrow and 10am-6pm on Monday. The sale is at the Mount Wolseley Hotel, Tullow, Co Carlow, at 10.30am on Tuesday.