SOME very handsome pieces of Irish furniture are included in next Wednesday's sale being conducted in Blackrock, Dublin, by Hamilton Osborne King. A set of five mahogany dining chairs and an open armchair en suite, for example, were made in Ireland around 1835 and are expected to make £1,200-£1,500, while a mahogany kneehole dressing chest from about 1770, and bearing a later label of Hodges & Sons of Dublin, should sell for £1,500-£2,000.
A mid-19th century sarcophagus-shaped cellarette carries a pre-sale estimate of £800-£1,400; the centre section of an Irish Regency dining table is expected to sell for £1,000-£1,500; an oval giltwood and plaster mirror in the Regency style, with the label of Bregazzi & Sons of Dublin, has a price of £300-£500; and a 19th century mahogany and rosewood banded side cabinet is expected to fetch £2,500-£4,000.
Then there is an early 19th century mahogany, satinwood, banded and line inlaid longcase clock (£1,000-£1,500), and among the continental furniture, is a large boulle and ormolu French wall clock from circa 1740 (£5,000-£7,000).
Starting at 11.30 am., the sale also includes a small selection of silver, such as an Irish circular sauce tureen and cover made in Dublin circa 1804 (£800-£1,200), as well as an oval bowl by William Byrne of Dublin from around the same period (£300-£500). There is also some porcelain, including several pieces of first-period Belleek, not least of which is a flask and stopper (£600-£800) and a model of a crouching frog on a lily-pad paper weight (£400-£600).
The painting section includes several works by Edith Somerville, with an oil study of a seated young woman likely to make the highest price of £600-£1,000. Irish pictures run from a Sean Keating pastel study of a woman's head (£2,000-£3,000), a Flora Mitchell wash-over-pen of Kevin Street (£600-£800) and a Charles McAuley oil of Cushendall Bay in Co Antrim (£1,000-£1,500).