The growing market for collectibles and memorabilia is reflected in an increasing number of sales by auctioneers across the board. A 17th/18th century Irish yew wood birthing stool will lead Sheppards Irish Vernacular Part II sale in Durrow on March 28. This rarity has an estimate of €5,000-€8,000. An 18th century Irish Penal Cross has a well carved figure with a skull and crossbones at the base and is estimated at €2,000-€3,000, as is an 18th century Irish mether, the sort of four handled Celtic friendship drinking vessel on which the design of the Liam McCarthy Cup is based. At Sheppards you can take your pick between an Irish jaunting side car or a classic Honda 50 cc motorcycle. Among the earlier examples of Irish life are an 18th century sycamore hedge chair, a cock fighting dugout stool and a dugout chair. All are conversation pieces.
There are flour bins, griddle pans, copper measures, a one legged milking stool, a metal bound milk churn, pine dressers and tables, bookshelves, plate racks and even an early Irish dugout food cupboard. More and more collectors are opting for objects like these, laden with memory and redolent of a vanished lifestyle or homeplace. Sheppards will offer 368 lots online from Durrow.
Further up the country, at Blacklion, Co. Cavan there is viewing today and tomorrow for a retirement sale at McNean antique and salvage which Aidan Foley will conduct online only on March 27 and 28 The catalogue, with 1,232 lots, is online and features lots of enamel signs, road signs, street signs, vintage car parts, pub signs, garden furniture and Victorian mahogany furniture. With everything from a home bar styled like the front of a VW camper van to a decorative dug out canoe to a larger than life unique sculptural carved teak figure of a bull this sale will be a draw. Part one of the auction at McNeans last year drew enormous interest from right around Ireland.
The top lot this time round is a 1970 Rover 3.5 litre V8 (€8,000-€10,000). There are enamel signs advertising Player’s Please and Will”s Capstan cigarettes, once ubiquitous in Ireland. A London Underground Boston Manor sign might do it for all the Irish who once lived in west London and managed to make it home, an antique cast iron clothes wringer might still function and save money for someone energetic and if you feel so inclined you could light up a dark corner with an Esso petrol pump globe. The selection on offer is memory jogging for all sorts of reasons and the market likes it.
In Dublin James Adam plan to hold their first Irish Vernacular sale on April 12. This is a new auction category for Adams and the sale will feature original furniture featured on the set of The Banshees of Inisherin.
