More than 3,000 lots will go under the hammer in a massive two-day clearance sale of items from various Dublin venues that have either closed down or have been refurbished. The items have been assembled by antiques dealer Niall Mullen and include the contents of the private club, Residence on St Stephen's Green, Dublin which is closed for refurbishment, and the former nightclub Howl at the Moon on Mount Street, Dublin. Furniture, bar counters, light fittings, glassware, art and curtains are among the items being sold.
There is also likely to be interest in items acquired following the closure of Clerys
The auction will also feature hundreds of items from the Shelbourne Hotel following the venue’s most recent refurbishment as well as “Irish folk and pub memorabilia” collected throughout the country.
There is also likely to be interest in items acquired following the closure of Clerys department store in O’Connell Street that include old photographs, a clock, office journals and shop record books going back 150 years. An original framed cheque written by Denis Guiney in 1941, for £230,000, is also in the auction. He bought the department store, which had gone into receivership at the time, for £250,000 and had already paid a deposit of £20,000. Clerys went into receivership again in 2012 and finally closed in 2015.
The family-run, Co Cavan-based auctioneering firm Victor Mee Auctions has landed the plum job of hosting the event on March 5th and 6th at the Heritage Hotel, Killenard, Co Laois.
Highlights
Among other highlights are chandeliers and Game of Thrones-style bronze doors from Howl at the Moon nightclub; surplus-to-requirements furniture and chandeliers from the Shelbourne Hotel; and, chandeliers from the ballroom of the former Berkeley Court Hotel in Ballsbridge.
Mr Mullen described the sale as a sort of Celtic Tiger clearance.
Public viewing for the auction takes place in the golf club of the Heritage Hotel, Killenard for three days starting on Friday, March 2nd. Almost all the items will be auctioned without reserve prices and, while absentee and online bidding will be available, bidders who attend will, said Mr Mullen, “get a three per cent discount on the normal 19 per cent auction buyers’ fee”.
The auction on Monday and Tuesday, March 5th and 6th, starts at 10am daily and, given the huge number of lots, is likely to go on very late into the evening each day.
The catalogue for what is billed as Ireland’s biggest-ever interiors auction will be published online on Saturday morning.
The Heritage Hotel is about 5km from Portarlington, exit 14 on the M7 Dublin-Limerick motorway. Catalogues at victormeeauctions.ie.
Last year Mr Mullen organised a similar mega auction of the contents of the landmark Central Bank building on Dublin’s Dame Street following the bank’s relocation to the docklands area.
