A 19th century mahogany wellington chest of eight drawers was the best-selling lot when it made £23,000 at Sheppard's of Durrow, Co Laois, on Wednesday afternoon. Its nearest rival - a late 18th century Italian gilt-framed chair, its upholstered seat and back cradled on two sculpted female figures - sold for almost half that figure, £12,000. A sum of £9,500 was paid for a Regency rosewood and brass inlaid lady's writing table. An early 20th century canvas called Ladies sewing at a window with a child at their feet by Odessa-born artist, Max Sibert made £7,500, and both a pair of neo-classical brass-mounted mahogany and marquetry side tables and a George III mahogany dining table went for the same figure of £7,000.

A pair of Louis XVI period mahogany and brass-bound jardinieres sold for £5,000, a large bronze sculpture of a woman seated beneath a stylised tree fetched £4,600 and an oil of a seated nude by Walter Ernest Webster sold for £4,200.

350 bidders from around world bid for stamps

More than 350 bidders from around the world participated in last Saturday's stamps and postal history sale at Whyte's of Dublin. An accumulation of 400 letters from 1800 to 1850, with various Irish postal markings in mixed condition, made double its estimate, selling for £800 to a Dublin collector. An 1823 printed List of the Governors of the Charitable Infirmary in Jervis Street, and posted with a rare handstruck Charity Letter stamp (to indicate reduced postage rates), sold for £850 to a collector from Co Down.

A Dublin "Window Man" receipt of 1829 - a forerunner of the registered receipt - fetched £550, an 1841 penny red on an envelope with a blue/green cancel of New Ross £600 and an example with a red cancel £400.

Finally, a lot comprising complete rolls of Irish stamps for vending machines, including two with previously unrecorded configurations, had been expected to sell for £250. Eventually, a German dealer paid £1,100 for this item.

Leading price of £10,000 for cabinet

A large attendance of both private and trade buyers resulted in a Victorian three-door pietra dura cabinet fetching £10,000 at Adams of Blackrock last Tuesday. This was by far the most impressive price of the sale, as the second highest lot - a George III Irish mahogany chiming longcase clock - fetched £3,300 and a Victorian D-end extending dining table was bought for £3,000. A set of eight Victorian mahogany dining chairs sold for £2,700.