Fine furniture, art and decorative objects at Coolattin House auction

From tapestries to tables, Des O’Sullivan previews an auction featuring collections from several historic Irish properties

An early 19th-century Worcester dinner service.

Remarkable collections assembled over several lifetimes feature in an early October sale held by Sheppard’s Irish Auction House this Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (October 6, 7, and 8). The Sheppard’s Coolattin House auction brings together 18th-century Irish furniture, paintings, silver, porcelain, tapestries, clocks, scientific instruments and sculpture.

Irish and European art, furniture and decorative objects are at the heart of the superb selection of almost 1,600 lots. Fine Irish antique furniture features strongly throughout. 

Highlights include an Irish George II mahogany secretaire cabinet; a Killarney yew wood and arbutus davenport finely inlaid with a view of Muckross Abbey; a sideboard attributed to the distinguished Dublin firm of Mack, Williams & Gibton; Irish silver tables; peat buckets; carved giltwood mirrors; and furniture by Strahan and Hicks of Dublin.

An early 19th-century Worcester dinner service with 110 pieces should draw attention — and not just because it was once in the collection of the internationally celebrated singer Roger Whittaker.

A 19th-century Killarney library table.

Whittaker lived in Ireland for a number of years before retiring to France in 2012, where he said his last farewell in 2023.

The dinner service — redolent of country-house fine-dining traditions — would suit the leading furniture lot in the auction admirably. The George III dining table extending to more than seven metres, pictured here last Saturday, was formerly at Easton Neston in Northamptonshire and is illustrated in Great Houses of Britain. It is estimated at €30,000-€50,000.

Or how about a 17th-century verdure tapestry with birds among luxuriant foliage and trees with a distant castle? Tapestries like this were both highly decorative and functional, as they helped to keep a house or castle warm. An elaborate border of flowers, fruit, birds and classical ornament encloses this one.

A 17th-century verdure tapestry.

Decorative highlights include a French Empire-period cut-crystal and gilt bronze mantel clock, a Vienna one-year-duration wall clock, monumental chandeliers and richly mounted French furniture. There are early maps of Ireland by Gerard Mercator and John Speed, a terrestrial globe dated 1859, marine chronometers, sextants, barometers and early phonographs.

Leading art lots include an 1828 portrait of Mrs Issy Redmond by Sir Martin Cregan, founding member and later president of the Royal Hibernian Academy, where this portrait was exhibited in 1829. There are portraits by Hugh Douglas Hamilton, William Etty and the studio of John Hoppner, animal art and bronzes.

An Irish George II secretaire cabinet c1740-1750.

A substantial London 1860 silver flatware service of 123 pieces, an Irish Nugent family flatware service dating to around 1840 and a four-piece Rococo Revival silver tea and coffee service are all on offer. A19th-century 96-piece Ashworth ironstone dinner service is stamped for the Dublin retailer Thomas Higginbotham of Wellington Quay.

The auction is drawn from distinguished houses and collections including Temple House, Co Sligo; Luggala, Co Wicklow; Emo Court and Ballyfin House, Co Laois; and Dromoland Castle, Co Clare.

Three days of viewings begin today (October 3) at Coolattin House, Shillelagh, Co Wicklow. The auction will be held at the Sheppard’s headquarters in Durrow, Co Laois, and it will be a live and online sale.