11574
Late 18th century pair of Irish mahogany hall benches with marquetry detailing. The carved crest rail features a raised centre with scrolling and acanthus leaf inlay. The chairback is decorated with an inlaid classical guilloche band and the centre displays an armorial medallion featuring an inlaid crest framed by elegant satinwood ribbon drapes and swags. The benches bear a marked similarity to benches made to designs by James Wyatt for Castle Coole, Co. Fermanagh and Dunsandle House, Co. Galway. The shape of those Wyatt-designed benches was apparently widely copied by both Dublin furniture makers and local Irish carpenters or joiners. A settee attributed to Wyatt that is similarly shaped to the Castle Coole/Dunsandle benches is in the collection of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum and bears the stamp of the renowned Dublin firm of Williams & Gibton.
It was not uncommon for the designs of prominent architects and furniture makers to spread in Georgian Ireland in the following way: A member of the provincial Irish gentry, visiting an important home like Dunsandle, could very well have asked a local joiner, in Galway or another county, to copy the Wyatt-designed benches in Dunsandle’s hallway. The pair of benches you see here very likely exemplifies the kind of widespread but informal transmission of design that is almost impossible to document. Nevertheless, the marquetry work on these benches lends support to the theory that they are the work of a local craftsman. The inlaid designs closely mirror the carved designs on the Dunsandle benches. It is possible that a local joiner, perhaps skilled in the technique of inlay, but not well skilled in carving, opted to interpret the Dunsandle benches using a technique in which he was more proficient. Or perhaps the individual who commissioned the benches preferred designs in inlay rather than carved in relief. Doubtless the origin of these benches will remain a mystery, but it’s also why such rare items are so intriguing!
Price on request
