Suffolk's Earl of Iveagh 'relieved' as heirlooms sale looms

He owns a huge country home of great beauty - but it's far too big for his own family to live in in the modern era.

On September 14, 440-plus items it houses will go under the hammer in the first sale of its kind in a generation. The last great sale took place in 1984 when his father, the third earl, similarly had a go at clearing the extensive family attic.

Elveden Hall lies on the eastern edge of Suffolk just a few miles from Thetford. It is decorated with exquisite craftsmanship and skill - and filled with some remarkable family heirlooms which never see the light of day.

Above these treasures sits a central roof which could probably do with - at rough recent estimate - about £1.5m worth of repairs while a giant scaffold provides vital protection from above the front porch tower.

The present earl admits that what keeps him up at night are fears about what havoc moths, mice, flood or fire might wreak on these items - which have sat in storage inside the hall for the past two decades as he mulls their fate.

England's aristocracy has moved a long way from the great shooting parties of the early 20th century - remembered for their grandness and their excess.

Today's Guinness family heir - like his father before him - lives a more modest life in a smaller home on the family estate. And he can't see a future in which many of these items figure - either for him or for his two boys.

Arthur, 20, and Rupert, 18 - both excellent downhill skiers - were part of the discussion about what to do with an eclectic mix of ancient furniture and objects lying under dust sheets in closed rooms.

They were gathered and collected by generations of the family - both at Elveden and at Farmleigh, the old family seat in Dublin where the Guinness family fortune was made.

Now the Guinness family heirlooms are being dusted off for a special sale hosted by auctioneers Sworders.

They range from items with a personal history like an old Chopper bike the earl once rode, an ancient Elveden village milk cart whose late operator, Pam Roper, he remembers with great fondness, and traditional Irish peat buckets for the fireplace. There are also valuable carpets, vases, crockery, gilt mirrors - and a stuffed lion.

For those with a taste for the unusual, there is even a glass box housing an ancient 1910 crossbill nest made from pieces of tying wire plucked by the chunky finches from a nearby fence.

"I have lived with many of the items and I can walk around and know where they are from. They are all old friends and it's nice to think they are going to new places and also that I don't have the responsibility of looking after them in store," says Lord Iveagh.

Will he miss them all when they are gone? Probably not, he thinks. "It's a difficult one. I'm trying to detach myself from the perspective of actually no regret. 

"I won't have regret because these things are going to go to good homes - to people who love them - and the context is they have been in storage for over two decades if not longer than that. That framework is the one I'm working with."

Edward Guinness, the fourth Earl of Iveagh, took possession of the items aged just 23 on the death of his father in 1992. He and his three siblings - he has two older sisters - divided up the heirlooms between them.

The 1999 sale of Farmleigh - the house in which Edward was raised - to the Irish government added greatly to the haul.

The house had to be cleared, and many items - including some notable ones made by Irish craftsmen - were dispatched to Elveden to go into storage.

At one time, the young Lord Iveagh thought the hall might become his future home and reserved them in case that came to fruition, but he has since rejected the idea.

Meanwhile the furnishings have taken up space in the house, which found a new lease of life - at least in the short to medium term - as a popular location for film-makers.

"When we have had a private party or film we have not utilised parts of the hall because they have been taken up by storage," he explains. "From my family perspective they are items my children have not lived with."

Sworders director and auctioneer Luke Macdonald says the interest has been "huge", particularly for items including a stuffed lion, and an oriental vase.

The sale means the earl no longer has to worry about their destruction. One item which won't be part of the sale is a giant painting commissioned by his great grandfather featuring the Knights of St Patrick.

The dining room in which it hangs was built in 1910 and it was painted specifically for the room. A blue robe from the order, however, will go under the hammer.

"I don't think about the objects because I don't live with the objects. When they go I will think fondly of them," he says. "I have had to think very hard about what to put in but I'm settled on the items with good memories always."

One stand-out feature of the lots - whether the styles are in vogue or not - is the "amazing quality" of the craftsmanship, he adds.

Once sold, he expects his main reaction will be one of relief that they have been saved for posterity.

"I will be thinking:'What a relief' - because it's been worrying me."

Here are some of the top items to be found at the sale.