A NUMBER of equestrian paintings, originally from Dromoland Castle, former home of the O'Brien family in Co Clare, were sold at Christie's in New York last week. The pictures came from the collection of the late Mr and Mrs George Braga - Mrs Braga was the granddaughter of the 14th Baron Inchiquin and daughter of Guglielmo Marconi - and were bought by them at a sale in Dromoland Castle in 1962. Most of them formed part of the collection of Sir Edward O'Brien, second baronet (1705-1763), a keen horseman who filled Dromoland with equestrian paintings.

Typical old the works were Sir Edward O'Brien and Horses and Miss Quin, belonging to Sir Edward O'Brien by British artist Thomas Spencer, both of which were sold for $85,000 at the Christie's sale. Another picture by the same artist, Flying Childers, with Groom and Mounted Trainer at Newmarket made $178,500. A pair of pictures attributed to Thomas Spencer went for $8 050 and $6,900 respectively and two other 18th century English equestrian paintings from the Braga collection made $3,680 and $2,530.