Bantry House dining table and Reynolds portrait in the frame

Irish Regency table and a portrait of Elizabeth Sheridan by Joshua Reynolds were among the top lots at London auction

The Bantry House Irish Regency dining table.

A dining table of the Irish Regency period from Bantry House and a portrait of Elizabeth Sheridan by Joshua Reynolds attracted considerable interest at Christie's in London last week. The portrait made £119,700 (€135,069) and the table made £69,300 (€78,198).

The five-pedestal table with four leaves was acquired by Richard White, first earl of Bantry (d. 1851) or his son, Viscount Berehaven, later second earl of Bantry (1800-1868), a noted and discriminating collector who travelled much of Europe. 

Mrs Elizabeth Sheridan by Joshua Reynolds.

It remained in Bantry House for many years and was sold anonymously at Christie's in 2006 for £96,000 (€108,326). Many of the treasures acquired by Viscount Berehaven have been dispersed over the years.

Mrs Elizabeth Sheridan (1754-1792), the English soprano born Elizabeth Ann Linley, was considered a great beauty in the 18th century and the subject of paintings by Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds and Richard Samuel. 

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Wife of Richard Brinsley Sheridan and lover of Lord Edward FitzGerald, her marriage to the Irish playwright was stormy and both parties had affairs. Lord Edward FitzGerald was the father of her daughter born in March 1792. Elizabeth Sheridan died of TB in June of that year. The lots were part of a Christie's sale titled An Opulent Aesthetic: An Important Private Collection from an English Country House.