WAN McGeough Bond

In the post War years, there were very few collectors of contemporary Irish art in Ireland. The most renowned was Zoltan Lewinter Frankl, who had arrived in Northern Ireland as an East European immigrant. Perhaps the most significant local collector was Neville McGeough Bond (known as Tommy). His dates were 1907-1986 and he lived for much of his life at the splendid early 19th Century house now owned by the National Trust, called The Argory near Moy in County Armagh. There he assembled a large collection of Irish paintings, some of which come up at auction from time to time.All were sold after his death and almost nothing of his art collection now remains in the house. During his life parts of his collection were occasionally lent to public galleries, such as the Ulster Museum in Belfast, for display.

Educated at Eton and King’s College, Cambridge, he was as a boy a prodigious scholar. As was the way in those days, he never really worked and had enough money to indulge his tastes in art and in music and to spend the Winter months in Jamaica. He was in many ways a typical collector of contemporary art in the post War UK.

I would welcome contact from anyone with reminiscences about him or his collection.