Antiques & Fine Art: A tale of two tables made in Cork

Antique and contemporary Cork-made masterpieces are among highlights at an interiors sale, writes Des O'Sullivan

Prism table and Figure of Six chairs by Joseph Walsh at Sheppards.

An online sale this week features a Fletchers Shamrock table from 1852 and a magnificent contemporary table set by Joseph Walsh — both masterpieces made in Cork — among its highlights.

Sheppards two-day Great Irish Interiors online sale takes place on Wednesday and Thursday (April 28-29).

John Fletcher was a cabinet maker at 71 Patrick Street in Cork in the 19th century.

Fletchers 1852 Shamrock table at Sheppards.

His remarkable nationalist table is shaped like a shamrock with a central inlaid motif of a female figure of Erin in flowing robes leaning on a harp. It is composed of 13 different woods.

A c1790 French ormolu clock at Sheppards. 

When it was sent to America after failing to sell at the Irish Industrial Exhibition of 1852 the Cork poet Daniel Casey wrote a lament.

The table (now estimated at €80,000-€120,000) was exhibited to acclaim at the New York Exhibition of 1853.

An Irish Regency carved giltwood convex mirror in a serpent entwined frame at Sheppards.

The art of contemporary maker Joseph Walsh is exhibited regularly to similar acclaim these days in America and everywhere else.

The work of Joseph Walsh is in the Permanent Collections of The Metropolitan Museum and The Cooper Hewitt in New York, The Centre Pompidou in Paris, our own National Gallery and in a whole host of other prestigious collections.

His Prism round dining table and six Figure of Six chairs is estimated at €40,000-€60,000.

With everything from an African Ashanti headrest to a Clonmel longcase clock to crystal chandeliers, a 19th-century Irish cased brass theodolite, antique furniture, art and a papier-mache and leather artwork of James Joyce seated in a chair by Graham Knuttel the sale at Sheppards is brimful of interest.

For the ease of online bidders, it will be broken up into four sessions of less than 250 lots each, at 10am and 2pm on each day.

There is a 1968 bronze by John Behan of a horse and rider, as well as a c1790 French ormolu clock, an 18th-century Irish silver table, and a Dutch marquetry bureau.

Also being sold is an unusual Irish Regency convex giltwood mirror carved with a serpent, as well as Georgian wine glasses, suits of armour, jewellery, and a variety of landscapes and seascapes.

Lot 529 is a plaster death mask of Patrick Kavanagh by Seamus Murphy (€4,000-€6,000).

Meanwhile, Lot 671 is an Irish Regency side table (€3,000-€5,000).

A 19th-century marble inlaid Dublin fireplace in the manner of Bossi is estimated at €5,000-€8,000 and a large 19th-century giltwood console table is estimated at €2,500-€3,500.

This sale of 914 lots will appeal to a wide range of collectors. The catalogue is online.