ADAM'S THE LIBRARY COLLECTION 29th April 2025

132 240 JOSEPH WATKINS (IRISH, 1838 - 1871) Portrait Bust of Hon. Henry Arthur Cole, Florence Court, County Fermanagh Carrara Marble, 59cm high Signed and dated 1866 € 2,000 - 3,000 This lot is accompanied by a hardback copy of “Florence Court - My Irish Home” by The Countess of Enniskillen The Honourable Henry Arthur Cole was born on 14 February 1809, the fifth son of John Willoughby Cole, 2nd Earl of Enniskillen. He served with the 7th Hussars, the 12th Regiment of Foot, and for a time with the East India Company, rising to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Cole entered Parliament in 1844 as MP for Enniskillen, later representing County Ferman- agh from 1855 until his retirement in 1880. He died on 2 July 1890, aged 81. The present bust, The Hon. H. A. Cole, MP by Joseph Watkins (1883-1871), was exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1866 (cat. no. 512). Watkins, a Fermanagh-born sculptor celebrated for his portraiture, trained in Dublin and Rome and exhibited widely before his untimely death in 1871. The bust is recorded in the University of Glasgow’s Mapping the Prac- tice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851–1951 (object ID: msib3_1203596411). The work holds particular local significance, uniting two prominent sons of County Fermanagh—Cole, a long-serving political representative of the region, and Watkins, one of its most promising artistic talents of the 19th century.