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77 A WHITE MARBLE BUST OF A MAN C.1840,thought to be Sir Aubrey DeVere Hunt, 2nd Baronet (1788-1846),
with stylised beard wearing a Roman toga. 72cm
Provenance: Curraghchase, Co. Limerick;
and by descent DeVere Trust beneficiaries
€ 3,000 - 5,000
76 ATTRIBUTED TO THOMAS KIRK RHAA white marble bust of a woman, thought to be the Lady DeVere
(nee Mary Spring), wife of Sir Aubrey DeVere, wearing a classical
drapery, her hair as a Roman matron, inscribed verso ‘FANTAS
CHIOTTIEECE, NEL 1845’ in Firenze. 61cm high
Provenance: Curraghchase, Co. Limerick;
and by descent to the DeVere Trust beneficiaries
€ 3,000 - 5,000
V
ere Hunt, a ‘49 officer settled in County Limerick, claimed descent
through his grandmother, Jane de Vere, from the Earls of Oxford.
His descendent, Sir Vere Hunt Bt. of Curragh Chase was M.P. for
Askeaton and raised three regiments in 1798. A supporter of the
Union largely to obtain financial compensation for surrendering his
life interest in the borough of Askeaton, he was fobbed off, to his
chagrin, with the Office of Weighmaster of Cork.
Among other ventures, he bought Lundy Island in the Bristol Chan-
nel in 1803 and devised a scheme to populate it with natives of
County Limerick. It was a financial disaster, not least in legal costs
where he attempted to prove that the government had no tax rais-
ing or excise jurisdiction over the island. He lost the case. The peo-
ple literally escaped to the mainland and his son only managed to
sell it on in 1830.
His son, Aubrey de Vere Hunt, assumed the surname of de Vere
which sounded much more romantic and in tune with his literary
interests which were inherited by his younger son, the poet Aubrey
de Vere. Thus, the association of Curragh Chase with Tennyson and
the literati of Victorian England.
This elder Aubrey became the 2nd Baronet in 1818 and extended
Curragh Chase to accommodate his wife Mary Rice and their eight
children. Mary, whose mother was sole heir to Thomas Spring,
came from next door Mount Trenchard. On the failure of the bar-
onetcy, Curragh Chase went to Aubrey O’Brien who assumed the
name ‘de Vere’.
Curragh Chase burnt accidentally in December 1941. This ‘truly
enchanted place’ (James Lees-Milne) is now a ruin and the park is
carefully maintained by the OPW.