Adam's Country House Collections 12th & 13th October 2020

7 COUNTRY HOUSE COLLECTIONS AT TOWNLEY HALL 2020 So, in these difficult Covid-19 era circumstances Adam’s present their annual auction of works of art, deco- rative objects, ephemera from country houses but in a manner that strictly conforms to current regulations (as laid out in this catalogue). Country houses here were never much more than comfortable villas unlike the weighty piles of England or the extravagant chateaux, palazzi and schlosser of the continent. Townley Hall is the epitome of this elegant and sensible style, mercifully not interfered with by the faux-antiquarianism of the Victorians and beautifully restored and maintained by The School of Philosophy. Of these houses, fewer and fewer remain in the hands of the families that built them. Some years ago, it was thought there were 40-50 but every year sees an attrition, recently Howth, Westport, Killadoon. It is unlikely, and indeed undesirable, that there will be future sales of ‘original’ contents but the study of hundreds of catalogues of country house clearances over the last century leaves the impression that the families who built these houses were poor custodians of them. Thankfully the trend of destruction and neglect is largely reversed and people with energy and capital have taken them on and pieced together suitable collections which can return to the market. An inspired crusader was the late Desmond Guinness who, at Leixlip, showed what an eclectic collection of Irish works of art could feel like and, at Castletown, that Ireland possessed a decorative culture of European stature to add to its staggering Celtic and Gaelic inheritance. Desmond inspired others to follow and by his charm, persuasion and example he was greatly responsible for the change of attitude that is now so apparent in contemporary scholarship and the achievements of the O.P.W. One devotee of Desmond and Mariga Guinness was Carola Peck. Shown over the semi-derelict Rathbeale Hall, Swords, by Desmond she used her resources to restore it. This was the early 1960’s and she bought extensively from auctions and from the Dublin dealers then handling a glut of offerings from the great sales as Lyons, Castletown, Dromoland and elsewhere. Her achievement is recorded in Desmond’s ‘ Great Irish Houses and Castles of Ireland ’ (1971) where many lots in this sale can be seen in situ in Rathbeale. When her husband Julian Peck, saw that his ancestral home, Prehen, high above the Foyle, was for sale they bought it. Here another semi-derelict classic house, was saved and the contents of Rathbeale moved to it. So Rathbeale is in good hands instead of being demolished, Prehen perhaps not so secure. Bearforest, one of the Morrison’s iconic villas, although fire-damaged was brought back to life, again and furnished accord- ingly. Now it moves on and many of its carefully chosen objects are in the present sale. Some collections have vanished without record, as was from the Earl of Kildare’s great palazzo, Leinster House built in a field away from the fashionable Henrietta Street. The Earl (later Duke), the original south sider, declaring that ‘the others will follow’. No inventory exists of the contents. Then, as now, Kildare (Lein- ster) House was a political statement and furnished, gilded and appointed to impress. A chance publication of a letter from the Earl’s sister-in-law to Lady Kildare has led to the identification of a pair of fashionable chairs of 1759, made by the royal cabinet maker in London; seemingly now the only documented example of the original furnishings. From Lyons is the luxurious silver gilt dessert service with the crest of the Baron’s Cloncurry. Valentine Images courtesy of the National Library of Ireland