When elegance trumped comfort

Pleasing the eye was the key intent for the creators of 18th-century furniture now coming to auction

An Avenue of Trees by James Arthur O’Connor

For blue-chip provenance, it’s hard to beat Leixlip Castle in Co Kildare. One of Ireland’s oldest continuously inhabited buildings, it dates from 1172 and is currently owned by Desmond Guinness.

A headline lot ...