Here comes the giant crab: So much for collectors to get their claws into

From a seven-foot-tall crab to Cork pub memorabilia, Victor Mee and Fonsie Mealy's auctions have much to offer, writes Des O'Sullivan

An oversized bronze of a crab at Victor Mee.

The possibilities seem limitless at sales by Fonsie Mealy in Castlecomer and Victor Mee in Belturbet on Tuesday and Wednesday (May 28 and 29). 

A 16th-century tapestry once in the Rathcormac collection of American actor Hurd Hatfield and the advertising mirrors from the old Clancy's Bar in Cork city centre give some idea of the breadth and scope of Fonsie Mealy's two-day summer fine art auction with 1,200 lots.

An advertising mirror from Clancy's Bar in Cork at Fonsie Mealy.

You could instead opt for a seven-foot-tall bronze sculpture of a crab (€8,000-€12,000) or a wrought-iron Victorian-style conservatory with remotely controlled windows (€15,000-€25,000) at Victor Mee's annual summer garden sale.

Fonsie Mealy will offer art by Montague Dawson, Gerard Dillon, Harry Kernoff, Augustus Burke, Dan O'Neill, Sean Keating and others, quality affordable and decorative furniture, Irish Provincial and Dublin silverware, clocks and jewellery. Lot 723 in this sale is the Ladbrokes Epsom Gold Cup from 1963 (€3,000-€5,000). 

The Choice of Hercules, the Flemish tapestry from the Hatfield collection, is estimated at €10,000-€15,000. The actor was best known for playing the lead in the Oscar-winning 1945 film of The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Among the feature lots at Victor Mee are the Victorian bandstand from the famed St Louis Convent in Co Monaghan, a 19th-century Carrara marble bath, a cast-iron statue of a pig, a pair of majestic moulded sandstone lions, a sandstone fountain, a statue of boxing hares, a tree trunk bench and an art nouveau-style stone figure of a lady along with an array of planters and gates, piers, pillar caps, steps and exterior lighting. Full catalogues for both sales are online.