A Daimler from the collection of vintage cars owned by Fine Gael deputy leader Dr James Reilly has been sold at auction for €12,500. The price was at the lower end of expectations.

The car was sold at a Sheppard’s auction of the contents of Dr Reilly’s country home, Loughton House, outside Moneygall, Co Offaly.

The ox-blood Daimler, registered to the British Admiralty in 1939 when Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty, had a pre-auction estimate of €12,000-€18,000.

Only five of the 10 vintage Jaguar cars were sold. The highest price of €3,200 was achieved for a 1960s Jaguar S with a 3.4 litre engine which had a top estimate of €4,000.

Among the cars that failed to sell was a 1985 Jaguar XJSC, with a 3.6 litre engine, which did not attract a single bid. Auctioneer Michael Sheppard remarked: “A Jag for €700 - there should be 20 hands up”.

The biggest surprise was the sale of Dr Reilly’s “cherry picker” - an “upright model, number TL 38”- which sold for €3,400, more than 11 times the top estimate of €300.

Withdrawn from auction

A 1991 Mitsubishi Pajero, branded for “Dr James Reilly” and “Fine Gael” for use during election campaigns, was withdrawn from the auction.

Dr Reilly, a minister in the last Fine Gael-Labour government, lost his seat in the general election earlier this year but was subsequently appointed to the Seanad. Dr Reilly and his wife Dorothy bought Loughton House in 2001 but also kept a home in Dublin.

As well as selling the contents of the house through Sheppard’s, they are selling the house and land by private treaty through estate agents Ganly Walters with an asking price of €2.75 million.

Sheppard’s four-day auction of the contents was scheduled to end on Friday night.