Cork sales offer everything from butter tins to benches 

Des O'Sullivan casts his eye over two city sales poised to tempt collectors with valuable and appealing antiques

A pair of cast iron-garden benches at Woodwards.

A GOOD selection of great value and attractive antique furniture and collectibles will feature at two Cork city sales next Saturday (December 3). 

Local interest will be stirred by a painting of Mahon Golf Club by Josef Keys at Woodwards (€400-€500) and a double washstand from the state bedroom of the White Star liner RMS Celtic which ran aground off Roches Point in December 1928 at Marshs (€4,000-€6,000).

Memories of the storied industrial past of the city will be awakened by not just any old tin but one labelled grandly "The Finest Keeping Butter in the World". 

The butter tin at Marshs.

The advice on the 28lb tin packed by M. Barrett, Cork, is to store it in a cool place. Marshs estimate it at just €200-€400.

Among a selection of cased longcase clocks, wall and mantel clocks at Marshs are two Cork clocks, one by William Ross, the other by a maker called Mansfield. Each is estimated at €2,000-€3,000. 

A large bronze bust of Napoleon on a pedestal (€1,500-€2,500) and a selection of silver and plated cutlery from the Ursuline Convent in Blackrock will create interest too.

A pair of Regency mirror-door bow-fronted cabinets at Marshs.

Not so much interest perhaps in the antique furniture, which has not been doing well for what seems to me to be inexplicable reasons. Marshs will offer a highly collectible pair of large mahogany wine coolers and an early Georgian mahogany corner cabinet each estimated at €1,500-€2,000. The estimates for these might have been higher two decades ago. 

There is a mere €400-€500 on an arbutus wood Killarney worktable and a Queen Anne armchair comes with an estimate of just €250-€300.

At Woodwards a pair of cast-iron garden benches is estimated at €1,600-€2,000 and a large Persian Mashad rug is estimated at €500-€600. Among the antique furniture in the estimate range of €400-€500 is a Georgian mahogany breakfast table, a George II kneehole desk, a pair of inlaid console tables, an Edwardian inlaid sofa table and an eight-piece Chippendale style drawing-room suite.

A George II kneehole desk at Woodwards.

The estimates are even less on a William IV inlaid walnut sewing table, a William IV oblong hall table, a Georgian walnut card table and a large kneehold desk, all reckoned to make around €300-€400. A bachelors chest, a Victorian oval centre table and an Edwardian envelope card table are all estimated at just €200-€300.

There is Waterford Crystal and collectibles at each auction. Viewing at Woodwards gets underway today. Marshs will be on view from next Wednesday. Each sale begins online at 11am and the catalogues are online now.