In the
salerooms: Furniture from US President George Washington’s Pennsylvania home comes to auction

Would you bid €6,000 for a very old wardrobe? You might if you knew that US President George Washington hung his clothes in it during the American Revolutionary War.

The distinctive piece of furniture, known as a schrank, is coming up for auction at Adam’s Library Collection sale on Wednesday, May 1 (Lot 129: est. €6,000 to €8,000).

It’s part of the contents of Dawesfield, a house built in Pennsylvania in 1728, which served as Washington’s headquarters after the Battle of Germantown in 1777.

The sale includes 80 lots from this collection, inherited by descent, which has spent the past 30 years in Ireland. Some of the pieces highlight the connection between the fine Philadelphia cabinetry tradition and Irish emigrants.

A Federal mahogany sofa (Lot 100: est. €3,000 to €5,000) shows typically Irish rope twist legs.

The sofa was photographed in situ at Dawesfield, as was a Chippendale four poster bed (Lot 130: est. €3,000 to €5,000, pictured below). Since the bed dates from around 1775, it’s possible — though entirely unprovable — that Washington may have slept in it.

See adams.ie.

​Dolan’s

The April Auction at Dolan’s Auction House in Galway continues online until Monday, April 29, closing from 6.30pm.

It includes a collection of rare Midleton whiskeys, dating back to the 1990s, and paintings from Irish artists, including Galway Hooker at Claddagh Quay by Letitia Marion Hamilton (est. €8,000 to €12,000), Protestant Row, Wexford Street, Dublin, by Flora Mitchell (est. €2,500 to €3,500), and Hard Times in the Snow, February 1917 by Mildred Anne Butler (est. €3,000 to €4,000).

See dolansart.com.