AS expected, there was keen interest in an architect's desk being sold last Wednesday in an auction held by James Adam in Dublin. The desk had belonged to architect, Francis Johnson, designer of both the GPO and Aras an Uachtarain, and this helped to enhance its appeal; it eventually sold for £5,300, despite the article's somewhat worn appearance.

It was purchased by a descendant of Francis Johnson now living in England but, sadly, it became separated from a portrait of the architect, which was sold to a Dublin-based national institution for £3,000.

The day's best price was made by a set of 21 colour aqua-tint views of Dublin by James Malton; they fetched £5,400. Among the other leading prices were: £3,500 for a pair of Victorian rectangular carved giltwood and gesso girondole mirror 2,800 for a 19th century brass hexagonal-sided hall lantern; £2,500 for a George III in laid mahogany slope-front bureau; and £1,700 for an Iris George III mahogany longcase clock.

Of the pictures, the highest rices, aside from the Malton set, were £2,200 for a 19th century Spanish Madonna; £1,950 for a 17th century German study of Venus in a wooded landscape; and £1,500 for a pair of southern Italian views by Giuseppe Carelli.