While the event itself is still almost two months away, the catalogue for HOK Fine Art's next sale is due shortly. This publication should excite considerable interest, not least because it offers information on what now appears to be the closest thing to a country house sale. The house in question is Castle Leslie, Co Monaghan, home to one of the country's more colourful families during the last century and a striking property on the shores of Glaslough.
Castle Leslie was entirely rebuilt in the 1870s by its then owner Sir John Leslie, the first baronet, and his wife Lady Constance. The old house, which looks to have been a handsome property, was replaced by the present building, somewhat Scottish baronial in style since it was designed by the Belfast architects Sir Charles Lanyon and William Henry Lynn.
Sir John was a man of exceptionally refined artistic tastes, a painter and a friend of many painters such as Leighton, Landseer and Millais; he exhibited his own work - examples of which survive in profusion at Castle Leslie - on a number of occasions in London including the Royal Academy. He was also a great traveller, regularly visiting other European countries from which works of art and items of furniture were brought back to enrich his Co Monaghan home.
While some of the finest items from the original Leslie collection have long since been sold, much of it still remains in the house and now a selection of items is being offered by HOK Fine Art at the end of May. One of the most charming lots is a set of three oval pastel portraits by Hugh Douglas Hamilton, representing members of the Leigh family of Rose Garland, Co Wexford; an Annabella Leslie married Col Robert Leigh in 1750.
This trio is expected to make £3,000-£5,000, while another Hamilton pastel portrait, showing the head and shoulders of a man believed to be a Leslie, carries a pre-sale estimate of £2,000-£3,000. Another portrait worthy of note is by Charles Jervas after Sir Peter Lely. Representing Mrs Trevor, it hung as part of a collection of 17th century paintings assembled by Horace Walpole in his Twickenham home, Strawberry Hill, from where it was bought by Sir John Leslie in a house contents sale in 1842. It is now expected to sell for £6,000-£10,000.
Despite Sir John Leslie's travels, there are many items from his former home which have an Irish provenance. Among these is a rather lovely flat carved giltwood wall mirror. Dating from around 1740, this has a broken pediment centred on a stylised eagle with outstretched wings while the apron is centred on a shell; the estimate here is £6,000-£10,000.
Also Irish, a mid-18th century mahogany chest has a rectangular moulded lidded top, is fitted with a drawer and flanked by brass carrying handles (£4,000-£6,000). Then there is an Irish mahogany side table circa 1770 with a rectangular elmwood top and a finely-carved blind fret frieze (£4,000-£6,000) and a pair of Irish mid-18th century mahogany presses each with moulded cornices above a dentil frieze and fitted with a pair of fielded panelled doors (£6,000-£10,000).
These are just a handful of the lots coming from Castle Leslie and, in turn, that house provides only part of the two-day HOK sale. It is scheduled for May 28th and 29th at the RDS, Dublin.
