The contents of one of the Chicago area’s most luxurious estates is being put up for auction after the home sold for $11 million in October.
Freeman’s Auction is holding an auction of the estate of the late Posy Krehbiel in Chicago across a two-day series on Dec. 10 and 12. Krehbiel, who died in 2022, was a Lake Forest socialite, philanthropist and gardener. She was the ex-wife of John Krehbiel Jr., the co-chairman of electronics company Molex, which Koch Industries bought in 2013.
“Her house and its gardens were sort of legendary among people in the world of gardening and collecting and antiques in Chicago,” said Corbin Horn, vice president and senior specialist at Freeman’s.
The mansion at 930 East Rosemary Road in Lake Forest, designed in 1912 by Benjamin H. Marshall and expanded by Thomas Beeby in 1996, has housed a lineage of Chicago business leaders, including John T Pirie, president of Carson Pirie Scott & Co. and Laurance Armour Jr. of the Armour meat packing dynasty.
The Krehbiels bought neighboring parcels to expand the property to nine acres, which Posy Krehbiel used for lush gardening displays. The house also included a glass-paned indoor conservatory.
The house sold in October for $11 million, after first hitting the market in August 2024 asking $15 million. Ann Lyon with @properties Christie’s International Real Estate represented Krehbiel’s estate in the sale, while Amanda McCmillan and Andra O’Neill, also with @properties, represented the buyers. Property records that could indicate the home’s buyers are not available.
The auction will give a window into the high end collection and design pieces Krehbiel put together during her time at the estate. The collection of 450 lots includes a wide selection of antique European furniture, like a 19th-century North European marble-top table valued between $5,000 and $7,000 and a 20th-century pair of Swedish neoclassical painted cabinets valued between $3,000 and $5,000. The collection also reflects Krehbiel’s gardening interests, with many pieces adorned with floral patterns and leaves, Horn said.
One set of 213 lots will be auctioned off live on Dec. 10 at Freeman’s auction house in the West Loop. The other 250 lots are available at an online auction that is running through Dec. 12. The size of the auction is notable for Freeman’s, Horn said. The auction house often combines the property of multiple homeowners into one sale, but for Krehbiel’s collection it went with a dedicated auction.
“When we encounter a collection that is so great, or a house that is so large, it’s a consignment that is worthy of a whole auction just for that homeowner,” Horn said.
Some of the house’s interior design was done by English firm Colefax & Fowler, which specializes in the English country house aesthetic.
“To people who are enthusiasts of that style of decorating and of the kind of antiques that are used in Colefax interiors, that adds to the appeal of some of this collection,” Horn said.
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Residential
Chicago
Lake Forest mansion with impressive history of elite owners sells for $11M