AS expected, the top price at a Mealy's auction in Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny, last Tuesday was made by a carved oak tester bed, dating from the 17th century. Elaborately decorated, this sold for £12,000, well above its pre sale estimate of £3,000-£4,000. Equally impressive was the £9,000 achieved for a large Turkish style wool rug, possibly from the Abbeyleix workshops or Donegal, and the £7,000 figure made by a William IV period mahogany library bookcase by Robert Strahan; the latter carried an estimate of £4,000-£5,000. Another bookcase from the same period went for £5,750, while a George II mahogany triple top games/tea table sold for £5,700.

Other good prices: £4,500 for a late Regency period inlaid and cross banded mahogany sofa table; £4,200 for an oil of Sheep Sheltering From A Coming Storm by E. Verboechoven; £4,100 for a set of 11 Chippendale style mahogany ladder back dining chairs; £4,000 for a 65 piece early English, stone china Imari pattern dinner service; and £3,000 for both a George III inlaid mahogany sideboard and a white marble figure of a female nude.