Adam's Country House Collections 18th & 19th October 2021

214 Country House Col lections The survival of Prehen is due to the Pecks. Overlooking Lough Foyle, just outside Derry, it is stated by Alistair Rowan to be by local architect Michael Priestly, dating to 1745. This “robust” classical villa with its rusticated stone details is characteristic of mid-eighteenth Ireland. It came to the Knox family by marriage and became notorious in 1761 when a failed abduction resulted in the shooting dead of 15 year old Mary Knox by John Macnaghten of Benvarden. He claimed it was just a mistake as he only meant to shoot the father. Convicted to hang, on the gallows the rope broke, Macnaghten disclaimed his right to reprieve and insisted on being rehung as he could not live in the county with the sobriquet of “half-hung Macnaghten”. In 1910 Prehen was inherited by Baron von Knox-Schleffer. As a serving German officer it was declared enemy property and confiscated. Through misuse it declined into sub-division and dereliction. Julian Peck claimed maternal descent from the Knoxs and bought it. With Carola’s flair it came back to life and with the contents of Rathbeale and the introduction of architectural statements like the carved wood cornices from Eyrecourt it was the Peck’s second triumphal restoration of an Irish country house, again reprieved from certain ruination. 586 ATTRIBUTED TO CASPAR NETSCHER (1639-1684) Portraits of William III and The Duke of Portland full length, standing wearing armour 153 x 122cm Contained in contemporary well carved giltwood frames, resplendent with military trophies Provenance: Collection of the Peck Family, Prehen House, Derry € 30,000 - 40,000 Day II LIVE AUCTION at 26 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2: Tuesday 19 th October 2021 starting at 11am