TRADE buyers were out in force at Mullens's auction last Monday evening, where a number of the top selling lots made well over their catalogue estimates. An English dealer paid £8,000 for a Italian white marble classical group of figures, which had been estimated at £1,000 £1,500. The following lot, a single marble figure, sold for £4,700 to an Irish dealer, £3,000 over its top estimate. Both pieces date from the mid 19th century.

Elsewhere in the sale a set of 12 Victorian mahogany balloon back dining chairs made £8,900, again well above estimate. A Victorian mahogany bookcase, its doors flanked by spiral twist columns, sold to the English trade for £4,700. An Irish dealer paid £3,800 for a pair of Donegal Killybegs carpets, with gold medallions on a rust coloured ground.

A second pair of Killybegs rugs, with a matching runner, sold for £2,200 to a private buyer. Lot 94, a Georgian mahogany four door bookcase, fetched for £2,800.

An impressive Georgian mahogany three part dining table sold for £2,700 and an Edwardian satinwood sofa table fetched £2,500. A pair of Waterford chandeliers made £2,300. However the most expensive lot of the evening, a Waterford chandelier dating from 1800, failed to sell. It had been estimated at £12,000-£16,000.