Great Irish Households: Inventories from the Long Eighteenth Century presents in a single volume transcripts of inventories of fourteen great country houses, three Dublin town houses and one London town house, published as a tribute to the last Knight of Glin.Published as a companion volume to Noble Households: Eighteenth-Century Inventories of Great English Houses. The inventories, all but two published for the first time, span the period from 1702, the year of William of Orange's death, to 1821, the year of George IV's coronation.
In 2003, Jane Fenlon, the historian of Irish art and architecture of the early modern period, had lamented the fact that inventories were a "rather neglected area of study" and had stressed how important it was that they "should not be treated as mere records of house furnishings" but "be seen as valuable research sources rich in information . . ."Fenlon 2003, introduction, p. 8. Regrettably, as Simon Swynfen Jervis's book British and Irish inventories bears out, there is still a dearth of Irish household inventories available in published form. By making more of them available in transcript, however, the book Great Irish Households has helped meet this acknowledged need.See Toby Barnard's foreword, pp. 11–12.
Structure A preface by Leslie FitzpatrickShe was formerly the Samuel and M. Patricia Grober Associate Curator of European Decorative Arts, The Art Institute of Chicago and co-curated the exhibition Ireland: Crossroads of Art and Design, 1690–1840 held at the institute, 17 March – 21 June 2015. and a foreword by Toby Barnard give a broad historical setting for the transcriptions. The inventories themselves, drawn up for probate or for a variety of other purposes by specialist appraisers together with family members or their staff, are given preambles by way of introduction to the houses and are supplemented with a glossary and indexes to personal namesThe index of personal names includes house owners as well as sitters in portraits, artists, makers and dealers. and to the items listed."The exceptionally full index makes it possible to trace the use of particular types of furniture or material across the course of the century," writes Michael Hall in his review "The Ascendancy at home", Times Literary Supplement, no. 6279, 4 August 2023, pp. 22–3. The Silver Society Newsletter (January 2023, p. 15), outlining the book's contents, highlights the main houses where silver is listed: Baronscourt, Castlecomer House, Dublin Castle (2nd Duke of Ormonde's plate), Mount Stewart and Newbridge House. There are also appendices identifying the books listed in abridged form in inventories from three of the houses: at Kilkenny Castle, in the second Duchess of Ormonde's closet (1705); at the bishop's mansion house, Elphin, County Roscommon, in the study (1740); at Newbridge House, County Dublin, in the library (1821).As Toby Barnard remarks in his foreword, two out of the three listings had been assembled by bishops, "perhaps supporting the contention that the members of the Irish peerage and country gentry were not notably bookish" (see p. 14 of Great Irish Households).
The inventories are grouped as follows:
NumberHouseLocationYearNotes1Lismore CastleCounty Waterford1702-03This inventory was taken during the brief tenure of Charles Boyle, 2nd Earl of Burlington and 3rd Earl of Cork.2Kilkenny CastleCounty Kilkenny1705These were taken during James Butler's tenure as 2nd Duke of Ormonde.3Dublin CastleDublin17074The Duke of Ormonde's houseSt James's Square, London17105Bishop's PalaceElphin, County Roscommon1740The inventories were drawn up on the death of Robert Howard, who was Church of Ireland bishop of Elphin.6Captain Balfour's town houseDublin1741-42auction saleInventory previously published, without index to the items, in the Irish Ancestor in 1984 in a transcription by Rosemary ffolliott. Neither Captain Balfour nor his town house has been identified, but the original document is in the Townley Hall Papers at the National Library of Ireland, NLI MS 10,279. David Fleming in his review in Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies, 2022, vol. 25, p. 134, writes: '[T]his must have been Captain Harry Townley (1693–1741) of Piedmont, county Louth, who inherited his uncle's estates and changed his surname to Balfour'.7Hillsborough CastleCounty Down1746 and 1777Both inventories were drawn up for Wills Hill, 2nd Viscount Hillsborough (1742), later 1st Earl of Hillsborough (1751) and 1st Marquess of Downshire (1789).8Kilrush HouseFreshford, County Kilkenny1750Drawn up for Major-General Richard St George.99 and 10 Henrietta StreetDublin1772Luke Gardiner's houseThis inventory lists and values goods and furniture at the house the year before it was sold by Sackville Gardner to his brother's son, Luke Gardiner (the younger), later 1st Viscount Mountjoy.10Morristown LattinCounty Kildare1773Drawn up for probate on the death of George Lattin, the proprietor and member of a Roman Catholic family which had remained prosperous despite the rise of the Protestant ascendancy (see p. 165 of Great Irish Households).11BaronscourtCounty Kildare1782This inventory was drawn up for James Hamilton, 8th Earl of Abercorn.12Castlecomer HouseCounty Kilkenny1798Drawn up for Anne, Countess of Ormonde, to make a claim after the house was burnt down by rebels during the Irish Rebellion of 1798.13KilladoonCounty Kildare1807-29Inventories of 1807 overlaid with one of 1812 and of 1812 revised in 1829, all for Nathaniel Clements, 2nd Earl of Leitrim.14Shelton AbbeyCounty Wicklow1816Inventory of furniture drawn up for William Howard, 3rd Earl of Wicklow.15Borris HouseCounty Carlow1818Inventory, compiled for probate on the death of Walter Kavanagh, was previously published, without index to the items, in Joyce 2013.16Carton HouseCounty Kildare1818The longest inventory published in the book, it was compiled for Augustus FitzGerald, 3rd Duke of Leinster shortly before his marriage to Lady Charlotte Augusta Stanhope. Adrian Tinniswood in his review of the book in the Critic remarks: "Great Irish Households is worth buying for the Carton House inventory alone."17Newbridge HouseCounty Dublin1821Drawn up for Charles Cobbe (1781–1867), great grandson of Archbishop Cobbe.18Mount StewartCounty Down1821Created for Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry (Lord Castlereagh).
The end matter comprises: Glossary Appendix I: Sales by buyer at Captain Balfour's town house sale, 1741/2 Appendix II: Books in the 2nd Duchess of Ormonde's closet at Kilkenny Castle, County Kilkenny, 1705 Appendix III: Books in the bishop of Elphin's study, County Roscommon, 1740 Appendix IV: Books in the library at Newbridge House, County Dublin, 1821 List of inventory sources List of plates Bibliography Index of personal names General index
Other than Castlecomer House and the bishop's mansion house at Elphin, all the houses featured, some since modified, refashioned or rebuilt, are still standing to this day. Several of them are still the abodes of the same families.
Illustrations Among the plates in the book are portraits of owners of some of the houses, including: Charles Boyle, 2nd Earl of Burlington and 3rd Earl of Cork, detail of painting attributed to Michael Dahl James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde, painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller Robert Howard, bishop of Elphin, mezzotint by John Brooks, after a painting by Michael Dahl Wills Hill, later 1st Marquess of Downshire, painting by Pompeo Batoni Major-General Richard St George, mezzotints by John Brooks after paintings by Francis Bindon and by Stephen Slaughter Luke Gardiner (the younger), later 1st Viscount Mountjoy, painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds James Hamilton, 8th Earl of Abercorn, painting by Thomas Gainsborough Susan Frances Elizabeth (Anne) Butler, Countess of Ormonde, painting by Hugh Douglas Hamilton Robert Clements, later 1st Earl of Leitrim, painting by Pompeo Batoni Ralph Howard, later 1st Viscount Wicklow, painting by Pompeo Batoni Augustus FitzGerald, 3rd Duke of Leinster, drawing by Gédéon Gaspard Alfred de Grimaud, comte d'Orsay Charles Cobbe (1781–1867), miniature in watercolour by Charles Robertson Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry (Lord Castlereagh), painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence
Book design The book was designed by Philip Lewis, who chose to set the body in Rosart.See book's web page. This typeface is based on a type specimen by the type-founder Jacques-François Rosart, published in 1768.
Critical reception The historian and writer Adrian Tinniswood captures the essence of the book when in the Critic, he declares that it is "A box of geeky delights, certainly, but also a fabulous (one might even say indispensable) source for the scholarly study of the Irish country house . . ."Adrian Tinniswood: He also alludes to the book's "excellent glossary, that essential component of published inventories", a view endorsed by Michael Hall in his review in the Times Literary Supplement.See "The Ascendancy at home", Times Literary Supplement, no. 6279, 4 August 2023, pp. 22–3.
Robert O'Byrne, the historian of Irish architecture and the decorative arts, reminds us in his review "Listed buildings" in Apollo that household inventories, Irish or otherwise, vary in what they include and what they omit. Apollo: The International Art Magazine, February 2023, vol.197, no. 716, pp. 90–1, with full-page reproduction of Pompeo Batoni's painting of Ralph Howard, later 1st Viscount Wicklow, and quarter-page reproduction of William van der Hagen's painting of Carton House, County Kildare (p. 10). Retrieved 2 February 2023. In particular, O'Byrne bemoans the fact the Shelton Abbey 1816 inventory of furniture does not include the picture collection. Only some unidentified artworks are recorded there, in fact, listed as being in the 'Store Room' (see Great Irish Households, p. 227). Such omissions hint at their "fascination and fallibility", he ventures, and goes on to say: "When it comes to country house contents, they provide us with a great deal of information, but rarely all of it". Nevertheless, across the inventories transcribed in the book, spanning some 120 years, he reassures us that "it is possible to see how the decoration and design of affluent Irish households changed".