Among the bigger sales was a set of 12 restored and upholstered 1820 chairs offered at €12,500 by Dublin dealer Sean Eacrett who, in addition to his restoration workshops in the capital, is about to open another at Ballybrittas, Co. Laois.
Roxane Moorhead of Dublin enjoyed some good furniture sales and it was collectors who made the running at the stand of Chinese specialist Carole MacGuinness, who operates from near Dundalk as Double Happiness.
Generally demand was for lower-priced pieces – and there were plenty at under €200 – but even here fortunes were very mixed.
Lina Paine from Co. Wicklow, who specialises in small affordable items, lamented: “I’ve been doing this show for seven years now and this one has been the quietest. I’m not sure whether it is the heat or the economy.”
Sean Eacrett maintained the show attracted a lot of people from the country to which jewellery dealer Norah Lucey of Dun Laoghaire responded: “People come for the horses, not the antiques, but the jewellery is going well.”
So, a varied pattern at this small if well-established event but we might get a clearer picture of trade in Dublin at the big event, the annual Irish Antique Dealers Association Fair which runs at the RDS from October 1 to 5.
No easy ride for dealers at the Dublin Horse Show
THE word from Ireland is that autumn could be hard work – judging by results at the antiques fair staged as part of the Royal Dublin Society Horse Show from August 6 to 10. The Horse Show is a prime event in the city’s social calendar and the idea of the antiques fair – organised in the past by veteran Irish promoter Louis O’ Sullivan but this year by the RDS itself – is to put the 25 exhibitors in a potentially profitable ambience.
