A collection of Irish commemorative ceramics was sold for almost £28,000 sterling at Bonhams in London yesterday. The 43 lots had been collected over the past decade by Mr Philip Richardson, a Co Tyrone businessman.
The Irish ceramics opened yesterday's sale. The best price was made by an Independent Volunteers' Society cream-ware teapot and cover, made in about 1780, which fetched £3,910, almost double the pre-sale estimate.
These societies were formed throughout the country in response to a perceived threat of invasion from France or Spain.
Another lot from the same collection which sold above its estimate at £3,200 was a large cream-ware jug bearing the image of John Magee, Dublin owner and printer of Magee's Weekly Packet and the Dublin Evening Post.
Other lots fetching good prices included a late 18th century Staffordshire enamel patch box showing Richard Maguire's failed attempt to cross the Irish Sea in 1785 (£2,070) and a Belfast pearl-ware plate painted with a brown and beige stag (£1,840).