IN PICTURES: £1.5m of Linley Hall's treasures to go under hammer

More than 200 antique items from Linley Hall, near Bishop's Castle, home to more than one Shropshire MP since it was built in the 18th century, are to go up for sale at Christie's in London on March 9.

Lots include everything from the contents of the library and Victorian furniture to portraits worth tens of thousands of pounds.

The auction will follow one in Shrewsbury on March 2 by Halls Auctioneers of yet more items from the historical hall.

The Georgian Grade 1 listed house was built for Robert More who was MP for Bishop's Castle between 1727 and 1741, and for Shrewsbury between 1754 and 1761.

It belonged to the More family for around two hundred years, more recently the home of Sir Jasper More an Old Etonian Conservative MP for Ludlow between 1960 and 1979, and Shropshire County Councillor between 1958 and 1970.

Sir Jasper was also Deputy Lieutenant of Shropshire in 1955 and chairman of the Shropshire branch of the Country Landowners' Association, as well being a Government Whip, though he resigned in 1971, when he disagreed with Government policy about the European Economic Community, as the European Union was known in those days.

The contents of Linley Hall have been put up for sale by its present owner Justin Coldwell, who inherited the house and its treasures from his cousin and Godmother, Sir Jaspar's widow Lady More, known as Clare Mary Hope-Edwardes before marrying Sir Jasper.

Mr Coldwell said: "Sir Jasper died in 1987 shortly after his 80th birthday to be survived by Clare,who on her death in 1994 left the house to me, her cousin and godson.

"Within a year of my occupation builders were again called in to replace some of the failing 1950s building work, a new roof, new windows to replace rotten ones, new heating and rewiring.

"All furniture was put into store and I lived like a hermit in two rooms and a makeshift kitchen, while the works progressed and it seemed it would never end.

"Clare's last wish for me was not that I should keep it as a museum to them, but that I would be as happy at Linley as she and Jasper had been.

"It is a beautiful house in a beautiful part of the country. I have had a wonderful time there with my partner Simon and I am happy that the house has found new owners to take it on and love it as much as I have."

The Linley Hall treasures coming up for sale at Christie's include a set of six late-Victorian mahogany dining chairs by one of Britain's finest furniture makers, Gillow & Co, expected to go for £4,000-£6,000.

There is also a 300-year-old oil painting by Jakob Bogdani showing a cockatoo, parrots and a King Charles spaniel, with fruit and fallen masonry in a classical landscape, which is estimated at being worth between £25,000 and £40,000.

Valued in exactly the same price range is a Louis XV1 Ormolu Striking Mantel clock.

A collection of top hats is even up for sale, expected to fetch up to £1,000.

In the meantime other items are to be sold at Hall's saleroom in Battlefield, Shrewsbury, on March 2, including ceramics and glassware.

Among the lots will be two cups thought to belong to a near-legendary Shropshire figure, John "Mad Jack" Mytton of Halston, who was also an MP for Shrewsbury in the 19th century.

Based at Whittington, near Oswestry, he was notorious for his eccentricity and outlandish stunts, from riding a bear through his drawing room to jumping a horse over the heads of people eating their dinner.

However, he ended up deeply in debt and unable to pay his creditors, and died in prison after returning to the UK from Europe, an "old-young man bloated by drink", at just 37.

The cups, that bear his name, were at Linley Hall as the More family had links to the Mytton family.