Life’s Work: George Williams, antiques dealer, Co Meath

George Williams runs George Williams Antiques in Newcastle House, near Kells, Co Meath and specialises in the sale of 18th and early 19th century English and Irish furniture. He also offers a full restoration and upholstery service. He and his wife Maggy do all the work themselves following traditional methods and run courses on antique furniture restoration and traditional upholstery. 

What’s your background?

I grew up in a big house in Silchester Road in Dún Laoghaire. I had a great childhood with five brothers and three sisters. My late father, Arthur Williams, was an estate auctioneer with Hamilton & Hamilton and it was he who encouraged me to become an antique dealer. He handled many of the sales of the great Irish country houses and their contents during the days that witnessed the decline and fall of these homes of the Anglo Irish.

As with most of my brothers, I began to work as a porter from an early age. It was cataloguing these wonderful house contents sales that I gained my lifelong interest in everything old, especially furniture. I’ve always loved old furniture as I was brought up with it, and I remember as a child lying on the carpet under pieces of furniture studying the construction joints and glue blocks and looking for a label or a signature.

There was usually a turkey on the sideboard and I would swipe a slice of it before I went underneath to take a closer look at underside. Since then, I’ve always turned pieces of furniture upside down. As you can’t judge a book by its cover, you have to see the way it’s been constructed, altered or even faked.

Working at these great house sales for my father, I saw that there was a lot of furniture in the basements that needed to be restored. I knew there were bargains in those basements, and it was always the same faces that came back buying again and again.

How did you get into the business?

I had always wanted a career in antiques. So I put myself through a furniture restoration and design course, and paid for it with a day job working for an antique dealer and I began to learn the old skills of furniture restoration. I was able to see at first hand the construction methods and joints used in the different periods. I set up George Williams Antiques in 1987 – 29 years ago.

Career highlights?

The contents sale of Castle Hackett in 1996. The castle is just outside Tuam in Co Galway, and sits beneath the mystical Knockma Hill. It was the home of the Kirwan family, who themselves were believed to be part-human and part-fairy, steeping the place and the castle in legend and history. The last member of the Kirwan family to live in Castle Hackett was Percy Paley.

I remember being left in the car as my father would go into the castle to discuss the arrangements for the auction. We would be en route for our holidays to Cong. Sadly neither Paley nor my father lived to see the sale take place, both had died in 1986. The auction took place in July 1996 and was a two-day affair. It was a great success with record-breaking prices for some pieces of furniture, many of which left Ireland for good as a result. Paley had amassed a library of 16,000 books and I remember trying to police the viewing of the vast library which was impossible as people kept mixing up the books, sometimes by accident, and other times on purpose.

During the auction I held up one of a set of nine Chippendale dining chairs that were originally from Carton House, and I watched from beneath the chair as they made an amazing £55,000 (€69,000). After the hammer fell there was a huge burst of thunder and lightning outside. I thought perhaps my father was cheering, perhaps Percy himself, or perhaps the fairies of Knockma Hill were voicing their opinion.

What advice would you give collectors or investors?

I love early oak furniture which I think is very undervalued. I’m sad that so many younger people don’t appreciate old furniture, it has so much to tell us and offer us. I think early Georgian mahogany furniture is still undervalued but you have to be careful as what is on the market is sometimes not what it seems, often restored or altered, one must be aware that this will affect the value greatly.

What do you personally collect and why?

My wife and I have a wonderful collection of early furniture spread throughout our house and an eclectic collection of paintings and sculpture from the 18th century to the present day. . . whatever we fancy really! Oh and we love a bit of cracked china!

What would you buy if money were no object?

I would like a commode or side table made by William Moore of Waterford. He was the genius of all Irish cabinet makers of the 18th century and, although working in London for Mayhew and Inch, he never forgot his Irish roots, embellishing his work with a shamrock.

He is one of our forgotten heroes.

What’s your favourite work of art and why?

A painting that my wife bought for a client at an auction in Dublin some years ago titled Pax by John Luke. When I looked at it, it pulled me into its rhythm. The literal peace of the scene, the happiness, it was like a jewel on the wall. When you study the picture and discover the complicated way it was painted your eyes just roll through the hills, the sky, the river and the figures in the boat. It's a highly technical work of art, the painter, meticulous to the extreme, kept a detailed account of the processes he followed throughout on a label on the back. His precision and skill fascinates me. It's almost three-dimensional – and truly luminous.

See: georgian-antiques.com