On a bright, blustery summer’s day, Waterford city lives up to its billing as a major focal point on the busy tourist trail that is Ireland’s Ancient East.
The world’s longest carved wooden sword is attracting a steady stream of visitors to the heart of the Viking Triangle. The blossoming of the new Waterford to Dungarvan greenway has prompted a number of new bike rental shops to sprout up around town. At the House of Waterford Crystal on The Mall, customers are arriving by the busload for the factory tour and retail experience.
Around the corner on William Street, Rody and Anne Keighery are gearing up for this month’s big summer auction. Like many of the premises along Waterford’s quays, the attractive stone building which houses RJ Keighery’s antique shop and sale rooms turns one face to the street and the other to the sea.
“It’s the only auction house in Ireland where you can arrive by boat,” Rody declares, indicating the nearby marina where prospective buyers could moor their vessel in order to browse the sale’s 830 lots.
With a €280 million development plan about to turn the city’s neglected North Quays into something resembling the Dubai waterfront, Waterford’s harbour district is about to undergo a dramatic change. But that’s nothing new for the Keigherys, who say they’ve seen a complete transformation of the antiques and collecting business in recent decades.
As we walk from one area of the building to the other, Rody – who has been an auctioneer and valuer for 47 years – points out objects which are waiting to be shipped all over the world, thanks to the advent of internet bidding; a table is off to New Zealand, an Arthur K Maderson painting is about to head to California.
But sometimes, details get a little lost in translation.
“At our annual garden auction earlier in the summer, we sold 10 garden seats to a dealer in Austria,” Rody says. “He paid for them and everything – no problem. Then this guy phones from England to know could we drop them over to his warehouse.” It took a while to figure out that the Austrian dealer thought he had bought his garden furniture from Watford, rather than Waterford.
Top lots
The stars of the August show are a number of elegant French cabinets, glowing with ormolu and brass detailing, some of which turned up, very unexpectedly, in a modest semi-detached house.
Lot 650 is a three-door credenza with brass inlay and mother-of-pearl butterflies (€1,600-€2,000), lot 740, an ebonised breakfront cabinet with pietra dura decoration (€3,000-€5,000), lot 680 a pair of demi-lune boule cabinets with granite tops (€1,600-€2,200).
Occasional tables and smaller items of furniture offer incredible value nowadays, says Rody, with davenports which would have fetched €2,500 a few years ago to be had for around €500.
Lot 397 (€300-€500) is a three-drawer commode with a marble top, lot 459 (€500-€700), a William IV rosewood folding card table and lot 335 (€600-€900) a mahogany side table.
Anne’s passion for jewellery – which she sells in the shop as well as at auction – ensures the presence of some lovely pieces, among them lot 539, a white gold and diamond necklace (€5,500-€6,500); lot 553, a Tiffany solitaire diamond pendant (€1,500-€2,000); and lot 538, an Edwardian two-stone diamond twist (€3,500-€4,000).
There are also some fine bronze sculptures: an art deco group of three flute players by Marcel Bouraine (lot 556, €2,400-€3,500), Adam and Eve by Jan Josef Jacquet (lot 623, €2,000-€3,000) and a Chinese dish with two dragons (lot 557, €1,000-€2,000).
What they’d really like to be known for, Anne says, is heritage Waterford crystal – especially the older, beautifully cut collector’s pieces.
It took three men to make the claret jug (lot 563, €500-€700); a Kennedy bowl (lot 565, €400-€600) has edges so sharp it could slice peaches. There are also some chandeliers including lot 824, a five-arm, and lot 825, a three-arm (€1,000-€1,200 each). A Lalique glass fruit bowl (lot 579) carries a modest estimate of €100-€150; at the other end of the decorative scale, a pair of Meissen-style candlesticks sport female figures, cherubs and lots of flowers (lot 649, €300-€500).
The auction also includes rugs, mirrors, long-case clocks and paintings. Alongside modern canvases by Arthur Maderson, Marie Carroll, Lorna Millar and many others, is a tiny portrait of Queen Anne (lot 759, €1,000-€1,500), possibly by George Bodley and with a connection to the Guild of St Luke in Dublin, in a curlicued frame.
Just the thing to put into the back of your boat, and sail happily into the sunset.
RJ Keighery Antiques, William Street, Waterford. Antique auction, Monday August 27th, 10.30am
