Wine, diamonds and other extravagances

Seriously serious wine, ditto diamonds, the finest 18th-century furniture, and rare Irish provincial silver await bidders at Sheppard’s this week.

When at the height of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain fever Thomas Chippendale introduced Chinese-style interiors with elaborately carved lacquered furniture, it was snapped up by stately-home owners in England and Ireland. Birr Castle has a splendid suite, brought by Anne, Countess of Ross on the occasion of her marriage in 1935.

Chippendale was ...