Antiques: Killarney wood furniture among four leading lots for auction

Des O'Sullivan previews the James Adam Irish Vernacular sale

An 18th-century painted larder, a Killarney Davenport, a three-seater settle bench and a John Crampton Walker painting at James Adam.

Some spectacular, though not strictly speaking vernacular, Killarney furniture has crept onto the catalogue for a sale now on at James Adam. Headed by a profusely inlaid Davenport, the four top lots at the timed online Irish Vernacular auction, which runs until Monday week (September 7) are fine Killarney wood pieces.

Highly decorated pieces like this were crafted for the commercial tourist trade.

Vernacular furniture like dressers, sugán chairs, larders and blanket boxes, locally made throughout Ireland, was designed and built for utilitarian purposes in rural homes and farmhouses. 

Some of it is very fine and collectible.

The exceptional davenport, complete with carved bog oak pillars, includes marquetry vignettes and trailing foliate motifs of shamrock, dog rose, oak leaf and ivy and would grace any sale. The estimate is €12,000-€16,000. 

The Killarney Davenport at James Adam.

A Killarney centre table has an estimate of €8,000-€10,000. 

There is also a chess and draughts table and a circular centre table, each estimated at €6,000-€8,000.

An 18th-century painted larder at Adam's.

Among an interesting selection of vernacular furniture on offer is a cerise painted shelved larder with panel doors, a green painted pine cupboard, a stained pine kitchen dresser, a green painted plate rack stand, a buttermilk painted kitchen table, a red-and-white painted three-seater settle bed, an open spit rack, an unusual set of sugán ladder back chairs, a railback chair with a stained elmwood seat, various farmhouse kitchen tables, a sage green painted Irish folk chiffonier with an ornate carved gallery back, a green painted marriage chest and a bog oak book slide.

There is a decorative wrought-iron harnen stand, used near open fires to dry and crisp oatcakes, a beechwood butter table, a 19th-century wooden rocking cradle, a milking stool, a coopered churn and paddle, a domestic butter churn, a wrought-iron rush light, willow baskets, a stained oak hedge chair, toleware canisters and a carved bog oak quaintly named fisherman's priest. 

A red-and-white painted three-seater settle bench at James Adam.

This object was used to humanely and quickly kill a catch. The name derives from the idea that it administers the last rites to the fish.

There is no doubt about it. Vernacular furniture is attractive, evocative and suits many contemporary settings. 

John Crampton Walker's oil-on-canvas painting 'A Cottage by the Dunes' at James Adam's Irish Vernacular sale.

In this auction, it is matched with early 19th-century Irish glass decanters, pedestal bowls, jugs and dishes; there is a selection of spongeware and a glazed ceramic mether cup, a stoneware flask, contemporary ceramics, art, Irish harps, duck decoys, Claddagh rings, banknotes and several smaller Killarney wood pieces. The catalogue is online.