Chinese vase sells for €120,000 in Laois

THE FINAL day of Sheppard’s three-day auction this week saw some blistering prices for Asian lots.

A Chinese Qing dynasty cloisonné zoomorphic vase, in the shape of a duck, sold for a quacking €120,000 – flying way beyond the estimate of €15,000-€25,000.

A bronze vase, decorated with butterflies and foliage, bearing the imperial Qianlong mark, made €30,000 (€3,000-€5,000); while a copy, painted on paper, of a 17th century Indian Mughal battle scene estimated at just €500-€800 sold for €12,500.

Earlier in the sale, a local bid of €1,600 ensured that the Famine-era journal of the Ashbrook Union Cricket Club (estimate €800-€1,200) stayed in Co Laois. It was bought jointly by the Laois Cricket Club and the Castle Durrow Hotel where it will go on display.

A Regency period terrestrial globe made €2,900 – just within estimate (€2,000-€3,000). All three Edwardian Dublin Vice-Regal pageboy uniforms on offer were sold; with the best example making €500 (€400-€600).

A random selection from the lesser-priced lots demonstrates that there are buyers for the most unlikely collectibles: a mid-19th century wedding dress with a Wallis Simpson waistline made €500 (€100-€150); a rare 19th century Staffordshire holy water font, €210 (€80-€120); a first World War Royal Army Medical Corps equipment box, €110 (€100-€150); mother-of-pearl opera glasses, €70 (€50-€80); a 19th century copper bed-warmer, €90 (€100-€150); and, a Royal Doulton figurine of a “Jovial Monk”, €45 (€50-€80).

A gold-and-tortoiseshell snuff box, presented as a gift by King George IV to Viscount Powerscourt during the royal visit to Ireland in 1821, was withdrawn at €7,500 having failed to reach its lower estimate (€10,000). – MP