The Cork man whose military career put James Bond in the shade
A Webley-Wilkinson 1902 revolver at Holts in the UK.
THE exploits of 007 look downright tame next to the real-world military career of a Victoria Cross-winning Co Cork resident.
A Webley-Wilkinson 1902 revolver once owned by Lt Gen Adrian Paul Ghislain Carton de Wiart, along with a cased model of the Titanic, and rare Cork silver are among the lots at sales by leading modern and antique gun auctioneers Holts of King's Lynn in Norfolk on Wednesday and Lynes and Lynes in Carrigtwohill next Saturday (November 14).
The life of Lt Gen Adrian Paul Ghislain Carton de Wiart, VC, KBE, CB, CMG, DSO, was most certainly out of the ordinary.
The Belgian aristocrat, whose mother was of Irish descent, was born in May 1880. Abandoning Oxford after one term, this action man enrolled in the British Army to fight the Boers and served in the Boer War, the First World War and the Second World War.
He was shot in the face, head, stomach, groin, ankle, leg, hip and ear, blinded in one eye, survived two plane crashes, tunnelled out of a prisoner-of-war camp and ripped off his own severely injured fingers.
After arriving back in England in 1943, he was posted to China as Churchill's personal representative. He married for the second time aged 71 and settled in Co Cork, where he died aged 83 in 1963. Carton de Wiart is buried at Caum Churchyard, which backs onto his old home at Killinardrish near Macroom. His cased and engraved .455 Webley-Wilkinson 1902 revolver is estimated by Holts at £3,000-£5,000 (€3,595–€5,992).
If you are looking for something out of the ordinary, then how about a rare long-horn chair in original condition. This one, lot 92 at Lynes and Lynes, estimated at €2,000-€3,000, was made by Wenzel Friedrich (1827-1902) of San Antonio in Texas, and it is in original condition.
Revolvers and horn chairs may not be what floats your boat, but with 481 lots in total there is much at Lynes and Lynes — on view in Carrigtwohill from today — which may be of interest.
On offer is a selection of silverware, furniture, maritime items, art, jewellery and collectibles like old toys and rugs. Three oil paintings by Fergal Flanagan, purchased at the Lavit Gallery in 1998, offer views of Youghal and its clock tower, UCC and the South Mall in Cork at estimates of just €300-€500 each.
The Titanic model is estimated at €1,000-€1,500. Maritime lots include telescopes, ship's wheels and clocks along with watercolours and prints of well-known ships.
The selection of antique furniture in the sale includes a Georgian sideboard, a Victorian bookcase, Irish turf and plate buckets, Cork 11-bar chairs, a satinwood banded sofa table and a Killarney tray.
A 1775 Cork silver soup ladle by Stephen Walsh and a c. 1790 set of 12 Cork silver teaspoons by John Nicholson are each estimated at €1,000-€1,500. A set of nine similar vintage teaspoons with crests by John Nicholson has an estimate of €1,000-€1,200.
Other lots of silver include a George II coffee pot, an early set of cased berry spoons, a collection of English silver cutlery and an Austro-Hungarian silver spirit kettle on stand with matching teapot and water jug.
The leading jewellery lot is an emerald and diamond bracelet (€3,000-€4,000), and there is a selection of rings, earrings, bracelets, pendants and necklaces in the auction. Persian rugs are very reasonably estimated, and a c. 1785 longcase clock by Hercules Troy of Dublin with a brass dial is estimated at €2,000-€2,500. The catalogue for the sale is online.
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