The 700-plus lots, which were offered on October 10, took place at Townley Hall – a Georgian country house – near Drogheda in County Louth, and featured furniture, pictures, silver, porcelain and collectables.
As expected, the sale-topper was the Irish Georgian oil-on-canvas painting titled A Mountainous Wooded River Landscape with a Waterfall and Three Figures by the obscure landscapist George Barret Snr (c.1728-84).
The 3ft 1in x 4ft 1in (94cm x 1.24m) oil on canvas had formerly been in the collection of the late businessman Senator Edward McGuire from 1969 to the 1980s. It sold on bottom estimate at €200,000 (£176,990).
The Dublin-born Barret had been regarded as an important landscape painter in the 18th century and received numerous commissions from the aristocracy in Ireland and in England.
Today his work rarely appears at auction, especially in Ireland where as few as five canvases have been offered in as many years, according to the Art Sales Index.
