ITALIAN telephone bidders battled it out with fellow countrymen in the room at Hamilton Osborne King's sale last Wednesday at Carrigacunna Castle to buy the top lot of the day - an 18th century walnut bureau that eventually sold for £16,000.

At £11,000 over its top estimate, this was very good price indeed, but the tone for the auction was set early in the day with brisk bidding, and lot after lot sold over estimate. An 18th century Dutch mahogany bureau cabinet, featured on the back cover of the catalogue, sold for £10,500. Another strong price was the £9,000 realised on a very large Ashworth dinner service, which had 227 pieces in all. A satinwood and marquetry bureau bookcase dating from the 19th century fetched £8,000, while a mahogany pedestal desk, lot 381, achieved £6,000. The same price was paid for an Irish mahogany bureau bookcase with three brass trellis filled doors. A pair of 18th century style carved giltwood mirrors fetched £5,900 under the hammer and a set of 14 Georgian revival mahogany dining chairs made £3,200.

Among the silver lots, a pair of ewershaped claret jugs, made in Sheffield in 1856, fetched £3,500. Lot 81, an unusual bold box in the form of an enamelled book containing a clock and a music box, made £2,000. A pig skin travelling case, stamped with a viscount's coronet and filled with an assortment of leather and silver containers, including tea cad dies, writing boxes and a kettle on stand, sold for £1,150.