Library Collection sale in the picture at James Adam

Library Collection sale at James Adam offers quality and diversity, writes Des O'Sullivan

Étretat in Normandy by Tristram Hillier.

Quality and diversity are the hallmarks of the Library Collection sale at James Adam in Dublin next Wednesday (May 1). With everything from a historic American collection, fine paintings, and lots collected during a grand tour to silver, bookcases, desks and collectibles this auction of 347 lots will richly reward a long curious look.

The collection of 80 lots of furniture, clocks, porcelain, glass and decorative effects from ‘Dawesfield’, a c1728 Pennsylvania farmhouse built by Abraham Dawes, is fascinating. The farmhouse served as George Washington's headquarters during the battle of Germantown in 1777 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The connections between émigré Irish cabinet makers working in Philadelphia, such as Joseph Barry and Henry Connelly, are particularly apparent in a Federal mahogany sofa (€3,000-€5,000) with typically Irish rope-twist legs. 

A Louis XV writing table by Claude-Charles Saunier at Adam's.

A Chippendale corner cabinet (€2,000-€3,000), a Federal dining table (€700-€1,000), a set of eight dining chairs (€1,500-€2,000) and a c1775 four poster bed (€3,000-€5,000) are all from this collection. A c1775 oak schrank or South German style wardrobe might have been used by Washington during his stay and is estimated at €6,000-€10,000. By descent through the female line, these pieces have been in Ireland for three decades and have never been on the market before.

Siena marble carved models of the Roman ruins of the Temple of Castor and Pollux and the Temple of Vespasian are typical of the prized objects collected during a grand tour. The architectural models date to the 19th century and are estimated at €10,000-€15,000.

Étretat in Normandy by Tristram Hillier.

The most expensively estimated lot is a 1939 surrealist oil on canvas by Tristram Hillier of Étretat in Normandy (€40,000-€60,000). An 18th-century capriccio landscape of Dunmoe Castle, Co Meath, by Robert Carver is estimated at €30,000-€50,000 and an 18th-century view of the Grand Canal in Venice from the School of Canaletto is estimated at €10,000-€15,000.

Carved Siena marble architectural models of the Temple of Castor and Pollux and the Temple of Vespasian.

There is a similar estimate on a pair of George II candelabras and on the most expensively estimated furniture lot, a Louis XV satinwood, kingwood, tulipwood, parquetry and ormolu mounted writing table by Claude-Charles Saunier (1735-1807).

A set of 23 c1700 etchings of the Invalides in Paris last came to auction in 1925 at the Carton House sale. Estimated at €1,000-€1,500 they are from the library at Carton, for 700 years home to the Dukes of Leinster and Earls of Kildare. 

A Federal sofa from Dawesfield (note the rope-twist legs).

The estate was lost to the Fitzgeralds when the third son of the sixth duke sold his birthright to Lord Brockett to pay off immense gambling debts. Viewing gets underway this afternoon and the catalogue is online.