Adam's Country House Collections - 16th October 2018

80 102 THE DROMOLAND CASTLE MEGALOCEROS GIGANTEUS $ VHW RI SUHKLVWRULF ΖULVK *LDQW 'HHU DQWOHUV DQG VNXOO F %& 6SDQ ZLGWK F P 3URYHQDQFH The Clan O’Brien at Dromoland Castle, Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co Clare from the late 17th century, thence by descent to the current Lord Inchiquin, 18th Baron and on loan to Bunratty Castle from 1962. € 30,000 - 50,000 7KH *LDQW 'HHU RU Megaloceros giganteus ZDV DV WKH /DWLQ QDPH VXJJHVWV IDU DQG DZD\ WKH ODUJHVW GHHU WKDW HYHU OLYHG DQG H[ - DPSOHV DUH UHFRUGHG DV KDYLQJ EHHQ ȇ ORQJ IURP KHDG WR WDLO DQG VWDQGLQJ ȇ WDOO DW WKHLU VKRXOGHUV 7KH\ RULJLQDWHG GXULQJ WKH 3OHLVWRFHQH 3HULRG RI WKH *UHDW ΖFH $JH DQG URDPHG IURP ΖUHODQG LQ WKH ZHVW WR 6LEHULD LQ WKH HDVW ΖW LV WKRXJKW WKDW WKH FOLPDWLF FKDQJHV IROORZLQJ WKH ΖFH $JH PD\ KDYH FRQWULEXWHG WR WKHLU HYHQWXDO GHPLVH DQG XOWLPDWHO\ WKHLU H[WLQFWLRQ 7KH KLJK FDOFLXP FDUERQDWH FRQWHQW RI WKH PDUO ZKLFK XQGHUOLHV ERJODQG LV FRQGXFLYH WR WKH SUHVHUYDWLRQ RI ERQHV KHQFH WKH FRQFHQWUDWLRQ RI UHPDLQV RI WKH ΖULVK *LDQW 'HHU GLVFRYHUHG LQ FRXQWLHV :DWHUIRUG &RUN DQG &ODUH RYHU WKH FHQWXULHV 0DQ\ RI WKHVH DQWOHUV IROORZLQJ DQ DJH ROG IDVKLRQ IHDWXUHG LQ EDURQLDO EDQTXHW KDOOV $QQH &URRNVKDQN DQG WKH .QLJKW RI *OLQ LQ The Watercolours of Ireland %DUULH -HQNLQV ) QRWHG WKDW “From as far back as 1586 there is an accurately portrayed sketch, now in the National Museum of Ireland, recording the discovery of the head and antlers of an extinct Irish Giant Deer found in that year and preserved by Adam Loftus, Ireland’s Lord Chancellor, who built Rathfarnham Castle in the 1580s. In Loftus’s letter of 27th September 1597 to Sir Robert Cecil, Queen Elizabeth’s all-powerful Secretary of State, in which he was planning to send the head to Cecil, he describes it as follows: “the rare greatness of it made me…. set (it) up in the hall of a poor house which I built here.”