Fashions in interior design change as the years – sometimes, indeed, the seasons – go by. But it seems that human nature doesn’t change very much at all, even over centuries.
Among the many and varied pieces of furniture, art and occasional objects assembled by Sheppard’s Irish Auction House for their Great Irish Interiors sale in Durrow next Tuesday and Wednesday (April 25th and 26th), you can see the 19th-century equivalents of the beer fridge, the personalised numberplate and that quirky mirror which, in a stroke of space-saving genius, also serves as a coat stand.
A set of crested Georgian hall chairs are a case in point. “In the late 18th century you get industrialists starting to have fabulous wealth, particularly in England,” Philip Sheppard explains. “The big landowners and grandees – the titled aristocracy – had started putting their family crests on to chairs and silver to show their status. That wasn’t available to the other guys, who didn’t have titles; so they started using other devices.”
Lot 289, a seat which depicts Britannia holding a shield displaying the arms of the City of London (€400–€600), and Lot 409 (€8,000–€12,000), a set of four crested mahogany chairs which came from the dispersal sale of Charles Stuart Parnell's home at Avondale, Co Wicklow, are examples of this exercise in historical one-upmanship. "These chairs were placed in the hall," Sheppard says. "So straight away, when you walked in to the house, they were announcing their pedigree through emblems of power and status. Nowadays we think that the personalisation of objects is really new – but this was happening 250 years ago."
For practical as well as socio-political reasons, an imposing and elaborately embellished marble fireplace was another vital component of the country house ambience and there are some fine examples in the sale, including Lot 109 (€40,000–€60,000) which came from Leixlip Castle, whose central panel shows Neptune seated in a scallop-shell chariot, and Lot 132 (€35,000–€45,000), which depicts Diana and her attendants flanked by Gothic arcades. Lot 106 (€1,500–€2,500) consists of three carved panels from a house in Cavendish Row in Dublin, rescued during renovations by the vendor’s late sister and saved from the ignominy of a builder’s skip.
No self-respecting country house was complete without its commodes, and Lot 30, a Kingwood piece decorated with a jug overflowing with flowers, a vase, a flute, and a basket of fruit and nuts (€12,000–€18,000) is, Philip Sheppard says, just a bit special. “The way the marquetry is done, the way the still-life is done, the standard of craftsmanship – still lives were starting to come into fashion in painting at that time, and to see that trend reflected in furniture is fascinating.”
As for that beer fridge, Lot 291 is a Regency period mahogany wine cooler, inlaid with ebony (€2,500–€3,500). “It’s quite big – almost monumental,” Sheppard says. “It would be nice to have it filled.”
The range of items in Durrow offers a fascinating glimpse of life “at home” on the grand scale over the past 200 years, from a number of 18th-century Nanking porcelain tureens to garden benches and footscrapers. There’s even a photo album owned by Lord Kildare (€500–€800) which features family wedding photos as well as shots of monastic ruins which may well turn out to be the earliest photographic images of such sites as St Canice’s Cathedral and Moone Cross.
“There are about 1,200 lots in this sale,” says Philip Sheppard. “I didn’t realise how many mirrors we had. Then I counted them – and came up with 41. They range from George I, which is very early 18th century, right through to early 20th century. Big, small, oval, rectangular, portrait-shaped – there’s even one 19th-century triangular mirror, which is a shape that I’ve never seen before.” Lot 587 (€80–€120) may not be particularly valuable, but it is very unusual, incorporating as it does a number of hooks for hanging coats on.
On Thursday afternoon (April 27th) Sheppard’s will conclude three days of sale activity with an auction of classic art. No Paul Henrys or Jack Yeatses here: just, as Sheppard says, a good solid collection of work by Samuel Walters, John George Mulvaney, James Arthur O’Connor, William McEvoy, Victoria Fantin-Latour and others. “Paintings that you would like to have in any house, and not crazy money. They’re relatively affordable.”
Sheppard's Irish Auction House, The Square, Durrow, Co Laois, Great Irish interiors: The Tom Duggan Collection and others. Sale Tuesday and Wednesday (April 25th and 26th), 10.30am to 6pm. Classic Art Afternoon: Irish landscapes, Old Masters, portraits and drawings, Thursday April 27th, 2pm to 3pm. Both collections will be on preview in Durrow from Saturday, April 22nd through to April 24th. See sheppards.ie
Michael Parsons is on leave
