Cutlery from Michael Collins’s last meal in Cork for auction

The cutlery used by Irish revolutionary Michael Collins at his last meal, which he ate at the Eldon Hotel in Skibbereen on August 22nd, 1922, is to be sold at auction later this month.

Mounted on the leaves of a silk-shaped shamrock and accompanied by a letter of provenance, it was given to his love, Kitty Kiernan, following the Big Fella’s death that evening at an ambush at Béal na Bláth. The cutlery is estimated to go for between €1,500-€2,000.

A number of other lots, from photographs and portraits of the leader, to a limited-edition centenary medal (46/50) at €300-€500, are also included in the sale at Mullen’s of Laurel Park Collector’s Cabinet sale on March 11th.

The current catalogue is a really good example of the wide range of objects and artefacts that people collect and features items from the beautiful to the bizarre.

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There’s the fruition of one collector’s obsession with the Apollo space programme, in which he or she assembled an album of 41 signed photographs of the 31 astronauts who flew on those missions, including Buzz Aldrin, Alan Shepard , Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins, worth an estimated €1,000-€1,500.

[ Diamonds, rare watches and an important pair of GAA boots ]

[ Heads up on sale of works by Louis le Brocquy, Edward McGuire, Harry Clarke and Paul Henry ]

For GAA fans, there’s a large collection of jerseys, a hurley and some medals, including the GAA hurling All-Ireland Junior final 9ct gold winners’ medal to Warwickshire in 1968 (€500-€700) and the blue number 15 Kerry match jersey worn by Mick O’Dwyer in the 1968 All-Ireland final (€150-€200).

Lovely lots are the celestial globe by Kelvin & Hughes, by Epoch from 1975, with printed star systems in a brass horizon ring within a wooden box (€200-€300) and an old French pyramid metronome (€60-€80).

But within the eclectic catalogue that sometimes swings from the peculiar to somewhat grotesque, is a pair of dolls that would possibly make a young child weep.

Known as bisque dolls, as they were made from biscuit porcelain; one of them looks as if she might have ingested illegal substances with her wide-eyed stare, a lopsided hairpiece and just two teeth. She is accompanied by her sister, who has a replacement wig, four teeth and sleeping eyes. To give them their due, they are rather old and were made by AW Goebel, whose porcelain factory was founded in 1871, (€100-€150).

Finally, there’s a chair with a brass plaque, on which Corkman Major Charles Roper-Lindsay sat for a fortnight, as he was charged with guarding the peace talks between the British Empire and the two Boer republics that became known as the Treaty of Vereeniging in 1902, (€800-€1,200). mullenslaurelpark.com