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  • Posts Tagged ‘ARMADA TABLE’

    ARMADA TABLE SELLS FOR 360,000 AT HAMMER

    Tuesday, October 16th, 2018

    The Armada Table

    THE Armada Table of the O’Briens became the most expensive piece of Irish furniture ever sold at auction in Ireland today when it was knocked down for a hammer price of 360,000.  The 430 year old table made from wood from Spanish Armada galleons washed up on the Clare coast was the subject of competitive bidding in the room and on the internet at the James Adam Country House Collections sale at Townley Hall in Drogheda. The Armada Table is described by The Knight of Glin in Irish Furniture (Yale, 2007) as one of the most important and earliest pieces of Irish furniture.

    In autumn 1588 as many as 27 ships of the Spanish Armada were lost off the Irish coast, two off the west Clare coast. Boethius Clancy, High Sheriff of Clare had the table made and later gifted it to the O’Briens of Lemenagh, Co. Clare. It has been owned by them ever since, passing by descent through the O’Brien Clan to the current Lord Inchiquin, 18th Baron. The table was relocated from Lemenagh Castle to Dromoland Castle after 1660, remaining there until 1962 when it was removed to Bunratty Castle. Lord Inchiquin made the decision to sell the table with regret.  It had been estimated by Adams at 100,000-200,000.  The table was bought by a private buyer and will be remaining in Ireland.

    There were exceptional prices achieved at the sale. An Irish George III mahogany breakfront bookcase with a top estimate of 20,000 made a hammer price of 75,000.  An Irish George II side table made 37,500 and a George III dining table sold for 26,000.

    The gross total for the sale was 2.15 million.

    TABLE MADE FROM ARMADA GALLEON’S WOOD AT ADAMS

    Saturday, September 15th, 2018

    A 430 year old table, made from wood from the Spanish Armada, is due up at Adams Country House Collections sale next month. Lord Inchiquin, Conor O’Brien, has made the decision to sell the table with regret.   In the autumn of 1588 as many as 27 ships of the Spanish Armada were lost off the Irish coast, two of them were lost off the west Clare coast. After their sinking the timber from the ships started to come ashore. The high sheriff of Clare recovered some of the decorative carvings from the galleon, which were then made into a three metre table.  It was at Dromoland Castle in Co. Clare, home of the O’Briens, for 300 years before being removed in the 1960’s to Bunratty Castle, from where it was recently removed. Adams have estimated it at 100,000-200,000.

    UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 360,000 AT HAMMER