At O'Reilly's auction in Francis St, Dublin on Wednesday silver gifts presented to the late Seán Lemass, a former Fianna Fáil leader and Taoiseach went under the hammer. A salver, inscribed "presented to Mr Sean F Lemass TD", in November 1953, to commemorate the opening of new factories in Finglas sold for €500 (€200-€300); a bowl, inscribed "presented to Honorable Sean Lemass, Prime Minister of Ireland, by The World Trade Center in New England" in 1964 made €500 (€300-€400); a seven-piece tea service catalogued as "presented to Sean Lemass on a visit to UAE" made €1,400 (€600-€800); and a pair of bowls, made in 1959 by Cork silversmiths William Egan, €330 (€300-€400).
Mealy's in Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny sold silver items from the estate of the late Joseph McGrath Jnr – heir to the Irish Hospitals' Sweepstake fortune - and his wife Patricia, formerly of Curragh Grange, Co Kildare.
A model of a blindfolded woman over a Hospitals' Sweepstake drum made €4,400 (€2,000-€3,000); and a 3kg tray commemorating a racehorse called Windsor Slipper €2,800 (€2,000-€3,000). Among other lots in the sale: a pair of 19th century Irish glass claret jugs, each etched with a portrait of the famous greyhound 'Master McGrath', sold for €725 (€750-€1,250); a silver cup awarded to Lt CL Robinson for "the defence of Trinity College" during the 1916 Rising made €6,600 (€2,000- €3,000); and, a letter and photographs of her January 1966 family holiday in the Swiss ski resort of Gstaad sent by Jackie Kennedy to an American diplomat in Paris made €425 (€200-€400).
