LAST week was exceptionally crowded with auctions, starting on Sunday afternoon when Town & Country held a clearance sale at Fort Belvedere in Co Laois.

The top price here was for a mahogany sofa table, which went for £3,900, followed by a Victorian mahogany four leaf dining table, which comfortably reached its estimate of £3,000. A set of 10 mahogany dining chairs from the same period, expected to go for £1,800-£2,200, fetched £2,850.

The follow morning, Mullens held an auction on its premises at Woodbrook, Co Dublin, were a Victorian walnut side cabinet (circa 1860), which carried an estimate of £1,500-£2,000, was sold to a private buyer for £3,000.

Similarly, a Chippendale style mahogany china cabinet, with an estimate of £1,600-£2,000, made £2,450, an Irish Georgian mahogany kneehole desk, circa 1770 (estimate £1,000-£1,500), went for £2,200 and a Georgian mahogany linen press on chests (estimate £800-£1,000) reached £1,200.

On the same day in Limerick, John Dunphy held an auction where a William IV serving table achieved £3,000. Other good prices at this sale included £1,200 for an Edwardian inlaid corner cabinet, £900 for a rosewood chiffonier from the same period, £800 for a Victorian mahogany linen press and £700 - for a watercolour by Maurice C. Wilks.

Tuesday's sale was held by Thomas P. Adams at its Blackrock, Co Dublin, auction rooms. Best price among more than 600 lots was for a mid Victorian mahogany rectangular dining table with two extra leaves, which sold for £1,750. This was followed by a Regency mahogany and rosewood card table which sold for £1,300. A Victorian rosewood library table made £920.

Among the pictures, the top price was paid for a George II portrait of a gentleman, while the same price of £740 was made by both an 18 carat gold diamond cluster ring and a pair of 19th century Sevres urnshaped vases and covers painted with classical figures.

On Wednesday afternoon at Durrow, Co Laois, Sheppard & Sons held an auction at which a Georgian white marble mantelpiece with heavily carved panels almost reached its top estimate when it sold for £6,500, while another 19th century Louis XV style mantelpiece in the same stone made £2,700.

At the same sale, an extremely handsome Chinese Chippendale style mahogany breakfront bookcase went for £3,800, a Victorian mahogany and marquetry cased grandfather clock fetched £2,200 and an Edwardian mahogany and marquetry card table sold for £2,100.

As expected, the highest price achieved at Wednesday's other sale at James Adam in Dublin - was for an oil by the Victorian artist John Haynes Williams. Entitled Day Dreams, this went for £4,200. The top furniture price, of £3,400 was made by a large Victorian mahogany bookcase, with a set of nine Georgian IV mahogany rail back, dining chairs selling for just £100 less than this well above their estimates of £2,500.

An even more surprising result was the £2,000 for a 19th century aesthetic movement carved and inlaid oak sideboard, which had a more modest estimate of £500-£800. In addition, a Victorian inlaid walnut credenza sold for £2,300 and a George IV inlaid mahogany sofa table made £2,100.

Finally, at the recent contents sale conducted by Drums of Malahide at 10 York Road in Rathmines, Dublin, the highest price of £1,400 was made by a set of six William IV diningroom chairs.