The entrance hall at Lotabeg with its cantilevered staircase.
The house contents of Lotabeg – a time capsule of long hidden antique delights – will be auctioned by Mealy’s in Cork next month. The graceful interiors of a house designed c1800 by Abraham Hargrave – who came to Cork in 1791 to superintend the erection of St. Patrick’s Bridge in the city centre – have been more or less untouched since 1939.
This elegant family home has yielded treasures like a life size portrait of James Butler 1st Duke of Ormonde by Sir Peter Lely and Studio of Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680), a pair of valuable oils by David de Coninck (1644-1701), a rare rosewood reclining library armchair probably commissioned by Daniel Callaghan MP and a c1864 collection of 90 albumen photographs of Hindustan and Kashmir by Samuel Bourne, Charles Shepherd and Arthur Robertson. Established in 1863 Bourne and Shepherd is the world’s oldest photographic studio.
The large stone ionic arch entrance to Lotabeg, surmounted by an Irish wolfhound, is a well known city landmark on Lower Glanmire Road. This commemorates a hound said to have saved a previous owner, the MP Daniel Callaghan, from drowning in the River Lee.
The auction will include around 750 lots of paintings, furniture, a collection of Cork and Irish silver, rare books, porcelain, Oriental carpets, chandeliers, Indian and Asian art and Irish historic collectibles. Viewing will be at the house from May 21. Entrance will be by shuttle bus from the Silver Springs Clayton Hotel where the sale is to be held on May 24.
The landmark entrance to Lotabeg from the Lower Road in Cork city.
Samuel Bourne, Charles Shepherd, Arthur Robertson, an extremely rare collection of 90 albumen photographs depicting the photographers’ travels in Hindostan, Cashmere, and Tertary, c.1864, including landscape images and ethnographic studies of its peoples. UPDATE: THIS MADE 12,000
