North German amber box made 627,250 at Sotheby;s in London on July 6. (click on image to enlarge).

UPDATED

This North German amber casket bearing the arms of Prince William IV of Orange and Anne, Princess Royal of Great Britain, probably made in Danzig around 1734 goes on sale at Sotheby’s in London on July 6.

Prince William IV of Orange (1711-1751) was a son of Johan Willem Friso, Prince of Orange, who stood to inherit the Principality of Orange under the terms of the will of William of Orange (1650-1702), popularly known as King Billy in parts of this country. He had no children.

The beautifully crafted box was probably made to celebrate the union of Prince William IV of Orange and Anne, Princess Royal, the eldest daughter of King George II of Great Britain. Their marriage at St James’ Palace in 1734 enhanced the strong ties between Great Britain and the Netherlands. The amber from which the casket is made would have been dredged from the Baltic Sea, where it had been collected as fossilised resin from the forested land there over 100,000 years ago. Individual pieces are rarely over two inches long and this casket is made with hundreds of pieces. It is estimated to make £200,000-300,000.

The casket is one of 21 works with exceptional provenance at Sotheby’s “Treasures” sale in July. The quality of each piece is matched by extraordinary provenance. The decorative art pieces in the sale, from porcelain to silver, snuff boxes, furniture and textiles, range in date from the 16th to the 18th century. Previous owners include Queen Marie Antoinette and the Medici Family.

A monumental silver wine cooler weighing 168 pounds and measuring well over a meter across is reckoned by Sotheby’s to be the most important piece of English silver to come to the market in 50 years. It was made for Lord Raby when he was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary to Berlin in 1706 by Queen Anne. It is estimated to sell for £1.5 – 2.5 million, the highest estimate for any piece of English silver.

This monumental silver wine cooler made a record 2,2505,250 at Sotheby's on July 6. (click on image to enlarge).

An Italian engraved ivory inlaid rosewood centre table made for the Duke of Urbino Francesco Maria II Della Rovere (1549-1631), c 1596-7, and subsequently part of the collection of the Medici family is estimated at £500,000-1,000,000.

There is  a set of three parcel gilt stools made for Queen Marie Antoinette’s Salon des Jeux at the Châteaux of Compiègne and Fontainbleau, Louis XVI, circa 1786-87 by Jean-Baptiste-Claude Séné (1748-1803). They are estimated at £150,000-250,000.

Mario Tavella, Sotheby’s Deputy Chairman Europe, who spearheaded the sale, explained: “Someone asked me once: what makes something a treasure? I thought about it…. It struck me that, in the general course of life, encounters with real treasures happen all too rarely. And so I made it my job to set about finding them.”

The pieces in this sale have been associated with names like Marie Antoinette, the Dukes of Devonshire, the Rothschild family, the Imperial family of Russia, the Princes Carafa of Roccella, the Duke of Urbino, the Medici family and the Earls of Macclesfield, Strafford and Dartmouth. What they share is a freshness to the market.

UPDATE, JULY 6:  THE amber casket sold for £657,250 – well beyond its pre-sale estimate of £200,000-300,000.  The wine cooler sold for £2,505,250, establishing a new record price for English silver. T

There is to be an antique and collectors weekend fair at the Blarney Woollen Mills Hotel on the weekend on April 17 and 18.  Organiser Michael Watson said it will feature a large selection of ceramics, silverware, linen, lace, militaria

NEXT BLARNEY ANTIQUES FAIR SATURDAY AND SUNDAY THE 15TH AND 16TH MAY.

The 5th Adam’s and Mealy’s annual auction of documents and memorabilia relating to the Irish struggle for freedom will take place over two sessions, at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.,  in Dublin on Tuesday April 20.

The sale includes almost 600 lots of newspapers, photographs, postcards, books, posters, medals, prison craftwork, letters and documents. This year’s auction features a number of documents of particular poignancy, including a letter handwritten by Kevin Barry the night before his execution in 1920.  It carries an estimate of €14,000-18,000. Barry’s interrogation statement is estimated at €5,000-7,000.

There is a copy of Aubrey de Vere’s Inisfail, inscribed by Roger Casement the night before his execution in 1916 (€5,000-7,000), and a copy of The Manual of Catholic Piety inscribed by Thomas Whelan and Patrick Moran on the eve of their execution in 1921.

A number of items relate to the burning of Cork City in 1920, including original artefacts used by the Cork Fire Brigade (a stand pipe and a branch pipe), the 1921 “Who Burnt Cork City?” pamphlet, a Labour Commission report on the burning, and four postcards showing the devastation following the burning.

Archives feature strongly.  There are Fianna Fail documents and memorabilia amassed by Peter P. Moody in the 1930s and ‘40s, and an archive of material from Kathleen McKenna who was secretary to Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith, includes a cap badge reputed to have been worn by Michael Collins on the day of his death.

A  number of significant items of broader historical value include the announcement of the discovery of The North West Passage in 1850. Written by Wexford born Robert McClure the letters sent news of his discovery of The North West Passage and how the ship The Investigator was stuck in ice for nearly two years  until the crew was rescued by HMS Resolute.

There is a collection of  19^th century photographs recently found at Rahinston, Co. Meath. They depict the Boyne Obelisk with the old and new bridge, high crosses, Slane Castle, the Houses of Parliament at College Green and other landmarks.

Viewing is on Saturday and Sunday April 17-18 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on each day and on Monday April 19 from 9.30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

THIS Cap Badge, reputedly worn by Michael Collins on the day he was shot dead, features at the Adams Mealys Independence sale.