November 2008

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When Jane Beattie of Dublin’s James Adam Salerooms told Apollo that ‘Irish history is valuable’ she summed up the motivation that drives the often unpredictable market for Irish decorative arts – and the prices it can fetch. Silver, glass and ceramics attract a handful of avid collectors, supplemented by a broader base of interested buyers, some buoyed by the booming Irish economy to repatriate their heritage. Ireland produced only a fraction of England’s output in the decorative arts – three Irish flintglass factories existed in the 1780s in comparison to 60 in England, for example – and scarcity of supply in all areas makes this niche market strongly competitive, with some sales fetching prices that leave auctioneers and dealers dumbfounded.

According to Dublin-based Jimmy Weldon, the leading dealer in Irish silver, the silver market is driven by demand for usable early-Georgian domestic pieces, particularly plain examples by makers such as Thomas Bolton (Fig. 2). Specialist collectors pursue in particular provincial silver, made in Cork, Limerick and Galway, where distinct local traditions of design and marking, aided by contact with Huguenot techniques, evolved in the 17th and 18th centuries. Recent exhibitions have encouraged this interest: ‘Airgeadóir: Four Centuries of Cork Silver and Gold’ was held in Cork in 2005, and ‘Limerick Silver’ at the Hunt Museum in 2007-08.

Two recent sales astonished the market. In June, Christie’s in London sold a silver coffee-pot made around 1750 by Joseph Johns of Limerick – one of only three known Limerick coffee-pots – for a staggering £70,850 against an estimate of just £6,000-£8,000 (Fig. 1). Two weeks later a second appeared at Dreweatts, Donnington Priory, making £23,000 (its condition was less good than the Christie’s piece, as it had a replacement handle and later engraving and embossing). But with the third known coffee-pot already in the Limerick Museum it is unlikely that these items will be seen again on the market for a very long time. According to Jeffrey Lassaline, head of silver at Christie’s, the rarity of Irish pieces ‘ensures a 50-60% premium over comparable items hallmarked for London’. It can be higher: reflecting on the Christie’s Limerick pot, the silver dealer Timo Koopman remarked that, ‘An English equivalent would be doing well to reach £4,000-£5,000.’ Although such pieces have typically attracted fanatical Irish collectors (both native and American), Lassaline noted that at the Christie’s June sale, ‘half the Irish silver lots went to non-Irish clients, suggesting a decrease in pieces returning to Ireland’.

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