Passion Investments: Collectibles
Raising Eire
Richard John Pietschmann
03/01/2007

ONE OF a pair of circa 1760 soup tureens by Irish silversmith John Laughlin Sr. The pair sold at Christie’s for $164,300. (Photograph courtesy Christie's New York.) 

Courtly and eccentric, John V. Rowan built his life around an obsession with domestic and presentation silver crafted by the talented artisans who thrived in Ireland from the late 1600s until England imposed the Act of Union in 1800, which signaled the end of the golden age of Irish silver. "He was 6-foot-5, wore a big old mink coat like a Russian aristocrat, and kept silver in every nook and cranny—under the bed, in the broom closet, under the kitchen sink," says Tim Martin, president of S.J. Shrubsole, the prominent New York silver dealer whose namesake owner, Eric Shrubsole, was Rowan’s close friend and silver advisor. "He loved Irish silver."

The New York collector and Texas native, who died in 2002, possessed a collection of 18th-century Irish silver that Silver magazine, in his obituary, noted was "generally regarded as the best in the world." Thomas Sinsteden, a leading Irish silver scholar who is researching a book on the subject, calls Rowan’s collection "magnificent." It is, he says, "by far the finest American collection of Irish silver."

That collection now resides in Rowan’s hometown at the San Antonio Museum of Art, which received the first of 275 groupings in 1992 and the remainder following his death. "He was a real character who had one foot in the 19th century, but would have rather had it in the 18th century," says museum director Marion Oettinger. About half of the 400-piece collection will remain on display in the fourth floor of the museum’s East Tower until a new gallery opens in 2008, with the Irish-born Sinsteden as adjunct curator.

Largely overshadowed by far more plentiful and widely known English and continental silver, Irish silver has grown in favor with collectors who value its rarity and aesthetic. "It is distinct in design and construction to English pieces, thus it is ab initio much more valuable and collectible than English," says Jimmy Weldon, whose J.W. Weldon in Dublin is considered the world’s top Irish silver dealer.

A 1715 monteith bowl by David King went for $95,600 at Christie’s.

"If you put me in a room filled with English silver and only a few Irish pieces, I will recognize the Irish pieces from across the room," Sinsteden says. Rupert Slingsby, head of Bonhams’ silver department in London, agrees. "Good Irish silver is often very identifiable without looking at the hallmarks. There are little things like extended drip pans on candlesticks, which are typically Irish, and the shape and decoration on sugar bowls, often using native birds and animals, which are also recognizably Irish."

Irish silver dating from 200 to 300 years ago is both more idiosyncratic and far scarcer than its English and continental counterparts. The finest works date from the first half of the 18th century, which began with styles that were somewhat plain and often quite unadorned, and then progressed toward highly decorated rococo. A group of exceptionally talented silversmiths—Thomas Bolton, David King, John Hamilton and Robert Calderwood among them—added to the sheen of Irish silver produced during this period. The hallmarking imprinted by the silversmith—or the lack thereof—dating a piece and identifying its maker is an important factor in valuing a piece.

The Irish developed an affinity for certain forms such as the dish ring (sometimes incorrectly called a "potato ring") used to raise hot platters and bowls above a table, and the freedom box, a kind of honorary key to the city bestowed upon their owners and much more common in Ireland than elsewhere. Also particularly Irish, says Kevin Tierney, head of the Sotheby’s New York silver department, are helmet-shaped creamers with three feet and two-handled cups.

Bog Standard
The inimitable Irish aesthetic sensibility that emerged in its 18th-century silver is one of the primary factors that sets it apart. "Irish silver has its own national style, and is almost as different from English silver as English is from French," Martin says. "It is distinguished by the superiority of certain forms—the Irish made the best 18th-century salvers—and, probably most noticeable, by a particularly charming and whimsical style of chasing and embossing."

Martin cites scenes depicting swains and shepherdesses in landscapes,cottages with smoke wafting from the chimneys, and the use of characters from Aesop and La Fontaine. "Like Irish people, Irish silver tends to be less formal, less stuffy and more fun than the English. If silver were literature, Irish silver would be Fielding and English silver would be Richardson."

A TEAPOT made circa 1740 by George Hodder sold for $72,000.

And if English silver would fill a generous bowl, Irish silver would fill a mere thimble. Sinsteden says 18th-century Dublin goldsmith records disclose roughly 60,000 ounces of silver assayed per year, one-tenth the amount assayed in London. The production of provincial silver was scanter still, he says, with 10,000 ounces assayed annually in County Cork. Today, Weldon estimates that Irish silver is some 150 times more scarce than English silver. "About 5 percent of silver assayed in Dublin in the 18th century appears to have survived, and provides the foundation for the Irish silver market," Sinsteden says.

Scarcity equates with a tight market and prices at the top end that swing from puny to stratospheric as a handful of aficionados—Martin estimates no more than 20 individuals worldwide, with perhaps one-third of them in the U.S.—either go into a feeding frenzy over a piece or leave it dead in the water. "Investor-collectors are always an important factor in the silver market," Slingsby says. "What they are prepared to pay for rare examples drives the market."

VALUE JUDGMENT
Antique Irish silver dating back 200 to 300 years draws collectors who appreciate fine craftsmanship and this market’s heritage. Today, the most coveted pieces from Dublin and the Irish countryside often fetch tens of thousands of dollars. Although experts may debate the long-term stability of this market, auction prices generally remain far below those paid for the best English and continental silver, hinting at a potentially huge upside for collectors.

A 1725–1731 footed punch bowl by Hamilton created a sensation last summer when it sold at a James D. Julia auction in Maine for nearly $100,000 after an estimate of $10,000 to $20,000. A Bolton two-handled bowl and cover estimated at $25,000 to $35,000 sold at Sotheby’s New York in 2005 for nearly three times the high estimate. A silver teapot by George Hodder of Cork sold in 2005 for $72,000, despite a presale estimate of only $7,000 to $10,000. "It is very important because it’s provincial," says Collin Sherman, silver department assistant vice president at Christie’s in New York.

Prices continue to escalate for exceptional pieces, particularly provincial items. Among those, items that can be traced to Galway, Conmel and Limerick remain especially coveted among informed collectors, according to Sinsteden, who estimates that fine provincial silver commands two to three times the prices of Dublin silver. Dublin, of course, was the center of the Irish silver trade, and almost every talented silversmith worked there at some point. Small-town pieces, however, are generally perceived as more collectible because of their greater rarity. In terms of market value, "Dublin is great, Cork is better in many ways, and Limerick is very rare," Tierney says. "These smaller towns were incapable of producing the quantity Dublin could produce. It’s a pursuit of the rare by people who want local things." According to Slingsby, a single wavy-end hash spoon made by William Clarke of Cork around 1710 recently sold for $27,000, and a fork made by John Gillett in the town of Youghal in about 1730 sold for $3,264.

Yet, interesting pieces made by great silversmiths can go begging. A silver basket made by Hamilton in 1723 sold at Sotheby’s London last June for less than its low estimate. A rococo creamer described as "rare" and made by Hamilton in 1745 sold at Sotheby’s New York in 2005 for $3,600 after a $5,000 to $7,000 estimate. "Buyers are now much more difficult to find for the middle-of-the-road items, and those prices are, at best, steady," Sinsteden says.

But Christie’s Sherman disagrees, citing a "thriving market at every price level" and "a large group of collectors who go after more moderately priced pieces."

Fortunes in the Attic
What is not in dispute is the relative worth of the best Irish silver compared to the best English or continental items. "Irish silver is not as high as one might imagine in the hierarchy of silver prices," says Tierney, citing an early French soup tureen that sold for $10.3 million. A particularly fine English piece by a famous maker, such as the Maynard dish by Paul de Lamerie, can command seven figures. In contrast, the highest price ever paid for Irish silver, Weldon says, is $207,668 for a rare set of four David King candlesticks at Sotheby’s London.

If the highest Irish silver auction prices seem stuck around the $100,000 mark, it may be because the best examples have been squirreled away. One of the highest sums ever paid for Irish silver was $200,000 for a set of four Anthony Stanley candlesticks that sold at Shrubsole more than 20 years ago. If they came up for sale today, Martin estimates, they might fetch $600,000. "The really ambitious pieces of grand Irish silver are not likely to come to sale," Tierney says. "If a magnificent Irish wine cistern came up, one might expect a big price. That isn’t likely to happen anytime soon."

Nonetheless, intense competition rages on, fueled at the upper end by investors who are aware that especially coveted examples of Irish silver may offer a greater potential upside over comparable pieces of English origin. "English prices have plateaued a bit over the last 10 years, but prices for Irish silver have continued to go up," Sherman says.

Experts claim that one reason behind this increasing demand is the notion that Irish silver collectors follow their hearts as often as their bank accounts. This describes devoted buyers who frequently focus on personal reasons related to their heritage. Irish-American collectors feel a definite connection to these pieces. Yet the Irish themselves, who are currently enjoying an economic boom, are now, for the first time in their history, in a position to reclaim their heritage. "For years I sold stuff out of Ireland," Tierney says. "Now I’m selling it back."

Richard John Pietschmann is a Los Angeles-based writer and a regular contributor to Worth.