This example with marks for Thomas Green has the considerable bonus of the dated inscription St Peter’s Dublin 1758. It was offered for sale at Adam’s (25% buyer’s premium) in Dublin on February 23 where, pitched at €200-400, it took €5000 (£4550).
The price is not too far short of the record for an Irish corkscrew – the steel cage corkscrew made by Richard Singleton, a Dublin cutler or maker of knives in the late 18th century, sold at Christie’s in the 1990s for £5600. It now adorns the dust-jacket of Bertrand Giulian’s Corkscrews of the 18th Century.
Pair of Irish wine ewers by James Frey, Dublin c.1840 – €7000 (£6360) at Adam’s.
The last Irish silver bowl to come for sale – with marks for John Tweedie and a crest for Coulson of Lisburn – was sold at McTear’s in Glasgow in 2015 at £1500. Back in 1999, in the days of regular corkscrew sales at Christie’s South Kensington, three were sold in a single sale including that engraved Samuel Fenton, Cork 1748, which hammered at £1900.
Another popular entry to Adam’s At Home sale was a pair of Irish wine ewers by James Frey, Dublin c.1840. Weighing around 70oz and modelled with applied cast decoration of fruiting vine branches, they took €7000 (£6360) against what was an appealing guide of €1500-2000.
