An appeal has been made to the Government to stave off the sale of furniture and works of art at Bantry House in west Cork by finding some other solution for the long-term maintenance of the southwest’s premier heritage tourism attraction.
Scottish fine art auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull are due to sell the contents of Bantry House on October 21st – a step the long-time owners say is necessary to “get some money to give us a little freedom [and] help to sort our financial obligations”.
Some of the contents are spectacular. They include a drawingroom furnished with Aubusson tapestries, Savonnerie carpets and a fireplace from the Petit Trianon in Versailles – all bought at a sale in Paris of French king Louis Phillipe’s possessions in 1851.
"The real jewel in the coronet though is the cobalt blue dining room with its heavily gilded portraits of King George III of Hanover and Queen Charlotte and Staffordshire Ironstone tableware, still in use today," according to independent travel website Ireland's Hidden Gems.
“Elsewhere you’ll will find a letter from Lord Nelson requesting a new foresail for his frigate sitting alongside a collection of birds eggs from a local school and an Arab chest given to the Earl of Bantry while he was working for the sultan of Zanzibar.”
Dublin-born Angela Brady, former president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, who has a holiday home in west Cork, said it would be a “crying shame” to lose the intact mansion and its contents, built up over decades by the Shellswell White family.
In a letter this week to State Architect Ciarán O’Connor, she asked what the Office of Public Works (OPW) could do to keep the house and its contents intact as a fine example of Georgian architecture, originally built in the 1760s for the first Earl of Bantry.
“The problem to me seems that the family have no advisers and can’t see the potential of a partner like the OPW to help them keep it all together and not sell off the very contents that make this such a gem for Ireland,” London-based Ms Brady wrote.
Bantry House, she said, was not just important for locals and Irish people, but also tourists who came to see the stately home and gardens overlooking Bantry Bay and learn more about the earls of Bantry and the history of the whole area.
Brigitte Shellswell White said different departments of the Government “are now, and always have been, well aware of the challenges owners of houses like ours are facing. Even places run by the OPW are having difficulties, as far as I know.”
Although the family knew that Bantry House “should be subsidised, endowed and curated as all museums in the world are”, she said the sale was also intended “to possibly change the present dead-end we are finding ourselves in”.
However, Ms Shellswell White added: “Of course, we are open to serious offers and informed advice.” This might include, for example, a possible arrangement that would enable the family to continue living there while the State took charge of maintenance.
Newbridge House in Donabate, Co Dublin, was kept intact with its contents in the 1990s when the Cobb family handed it over to Fingal County Council in return for the right to continue living in one of its wings. It has been open to the public since then. However, in response to a query from The Irish Times, the Department of Arts and Heritage said: "Neither the department nor the Minister have been contacted recently by the owners of Bantry House with a request for funds for its maintenance."
It noted that the main source of funding was the €5 million Built Heritage Jobs Leverage Scheme, launched last December, under which funding of between €2,500 and €15,000 is provided for the repair and conservation of protected structures.
