Antiques: Pistols, customised guitars, Qing watercolours, and tractors on offer at sales 

Tractors, pistols and library chairs are among the variety on offer at upcoming sales in Durrow and Cavan 

A pair of Howdah flintlock pistols at Sheppards.

SOME wonderful antique furniture, art including a folder of 24 Qing watercolours, unusual collectibles like a pair of Howdah flintlock pistols and customised guitars all feature at the Gentleman’s Library sale at Sheppards in Durrow next Wednesday, October 27.

A late 19th-century Louis XVI style inlaid commode with breccia marble top by G. Durand in the style of Jean Henri Riesener is, at €15,000-€20,000, the most expensively estimated lot. 

A French Empire library chair at Sheppards.

Other furniture lots include an 18th-century library pole (€500-€800), a 19th-century French terrestrial globe (€1,500-€2,500), a French Empire library chair (€4,000-€6,000), two George III Dublin brass bound peat buckets (€2,500-€2,500), a Regency library bookcase (€5,000-€8,000), a leather Chesterfield couch (€2,000-€3,000), a Regency rent table (€1,500-€2,500), an Irish 18th-century bureau (€800-€1,200), a French bureau plat (€4,000-€6,000), various Gainsborough chairs and bureaux and plenty of other pieces to choose from.

This is an auction to browse through and savour at leisure, either at viewings in Durrow which get underway today or online. On offer is 367 lots from The Smithwick Collection and other clients.

Portrait of James FitzJames Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde attributed to Sir Godfrey Kneller at Sheppards.

A c1688 oval portrait of James FitzJames Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde, is attributed to Sir Godfrey Kneller (€3,000-€5,000). Other art pieces include a folder of 24 Qing watercolours (€8,000-€12,000), four oils on canvas of a Fete Galante after Watteau (€10,000-€15,000), Irish School portraits, sporting pictures, engravings, lithographs and drawings.

There are black basalt Wedgwood lamps and urns, a 17th-century stucco bust of an unidentified Roman after an original from Herculaneum, Presbyterian minute books from 1734-1834, a Killarney wood specimen cabinet, mantle clocks, a c1800 pair of Howdah flintlock pistols by Charles Moore of London and a Burmese arched harp on stand.

Among 69 lots of musical instruments are Froggy Bottom customised guitars and guitars by CF Martin and Co, and Collings, Taylor and other makers.

There is a concert harp by Sebastian and Pierre Errard, a Challen baby grand piano, a Paragon tenor banjo and a French violin.

Aidan Foley’s sale of Agricultural Bygones in Cavan next Monday and Tuesday will attract enthusiastic collectors of a different sort. 

A Field Marshall 1947 tractor at Aidan Foley's Cavan sale.

He anticipates more interest in collectible lots like vintage tractors, a four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage, mill stones, Coalbrookedale garden seats, nostalgic enamel signs, antique hammers, old road signs, ploughs, iron gates, scales, wringers, and skillets than for much of the antique furniture at auction nowadays. Memorabilia is big business.

There is a large and varied selection of 1,308 lots which long-time collector Tommy Shannon is selling due to illness. The sale is on view at Shannon’s Yard near Killeshandra today and tomorrow and the auction is to take place at MacSeains Pub, Cornafean, Co. Cavan. The catalogue is online.