Bishop's House auction in Newry offers sought-after collector's items

'The specimen table was last at auction at the Tandragee Castle dispersal sale for the Duke of Manchester in the 1950s'

An early 19th-century specimen marble table at Victor Mee.

From an early 19th-century marble specimen table, an Irish giltwood convex mirror by Richard Jackson and a pair of Italian scagliola Sienna marble columns

There is much to tempt serious collectors in pursuit of hard-to-come-by pieces at the Bishop's House auction in Newry.

These are the sort of sought-after pieces you do not come across every day. The specimen table, for example, was last at auction at the Tandragee Castle dispersal sale for the Duke of Manchester in the 1950s. It is estimated at €4,000-€8,000. 

The early 19th-century mirror by Richard Jackson of Essex Bridge, Dublin, surmounted by an eagle and with sconces and ivy leaf decoration, is estimated at €2,000-€4,000 and the Sienna columns, each over a metre tall, at €1,500-€3,000.

An early I9th-century Irish giltwood convex mirror by Richard Jackson of Essex Bridge, Dublin.

Among more than 1,100 lots are a pair of carved mahogany urns on pedestals in the Chippendale manner (€3,000-€5,000), a hand dyed deep leather Chesterfield sofa (€2,000-€4,000), a pair of late 18th-century Italian giltwood and painted torcheres on paw feet (€1,500-€3,000) and an Irish Georgian Cork serving table with gallery back and reeded apron (€1,800-€2,800).

One of a pair of Italian scagliola marble columns.

There are club fenders and brass bound peat buckets, clocks and garnitures, gilded bronze vases, bronze Grecian lidded urns, a Killarney wood box, brass liturgical pieces, altar candle holders, 18th and 19th-century artwork and an early 20th-century Stations of the Cross, collectibles and garden pieces including a 19th-century limestone sundial and stone troughs

Viewing for Victor Mee's sale at the Mourne Country Hotel next Wednesday and Thursday evening (February 12 and 13) and online gets underway at the Bishop's House today.

A First Period Belleek Maid of Erin figure at Aidan Foley's Galway sale

At Kilcolgan in Co Galway viewing for Aidan Foley's sale of around 1,000 lots next Monday and Tuesday is from 11am to 5pm today and tomorrow. Belleek collectors will be taken by a first period Maid of Erin figure, though it does have a small chip. 

Art includes an oil on board by Tony O'Malley entitled Composition and a View of Roundstone by Ivan Sutton. The jewellery section is headed by an 18-carat gold diamond solitaire.

The auction kicks off online at 6pm on both days.