Footnotes

Provenance
By repute:
The Viscounts, later Earls of Wicklow, No. 4, Parnell (formerly Rutland) Square, Dublin, 1765-1839, when in its original state.
The Vandeleur Family, No. 4, Parnell Square, Dublin, 1839-c.1879, who probably had the chimneypiece enhanced with additional scagliola inlay.
The RC Archbishops of Dublin, No. 4, Parnell Square, after 1878 until 1891, prior to it being removed at the request of the archbishop, probably to the Bishops Palace, Drumcondra, North Dublin.
Private Collection, London, thought to have been purchased from a Dublin dealer in the late 1960s.
Thence purchased from the London trade to the present vendor.

The Howards
Ralph Howard (1727-1789) was created 1st Viscount Wicklow in 1788 but died a year later before being created 1st Earl of Wicklow. His widow was created Countess of Wicklow in her own right. He and his wife and their immediate family were the first owners of No. 4 Parnell (formally Rutland) Square which was built by Henry Darley II. It is also likely that George & Hill Darley were responsible for the chimneypieces which were installed in the house including the offered lot before it was later inlaid.

The Vandeleurs:
Colonel Crofton Moore Vandeleur, MP for County Clare (1808-1891) and his wife Lady Grace Grahan-Holer (d. 1872), daughter of the 2nd Earl of Norbury married in 1838 and purchased No. 4, Parnell Square from the 3rd Earl of Wicklow in 1839. As a wealthy land-owning family with estates in West Clare, they also lived at Kilrush House, Co. Clare. However, they regularly visited their Dublin town house and are known to have removed a dividing wall between the two first floor rooms to create a very large reception room prior to 1856 to host a very large party of guests. Given their wealth and the fact that they remodelled the house to entertain in some style, it is likely that they were responsible for the embellishment to some of the existing chimneypieces in the house, most likely to the bedroom fireplaces on the second floor, given the probable date of the scagliola inlay to the present chimneypiece.

The RC Bishops of Dublin:
The offered lot is very closely related to a chimneypiece which is now at No. 86, Saint Stephen's Green, Dublin. This house and its adjoining neighbour came into the possession of the new Catholic University of Ireland (now University College, Dublin) in 1855, with the Archbishop of Dublin as Patron and John Henry (later Cardinal) Newman as Rector. The chimneypiece is shown in situ in the house in a photograph published in 1912 by The Georgian Society (Fig. 1). At this time, it had been assumed that the chimneypiece was 18th century, dating from an earlier period than the scagliola examples by the celebrated maker Pietro Bossi (fl. Dublin 1784-1794). However later evidence subsequently confirmed that the chimneypiece was not original to the house and that it had in fact replaced a much larger example. This was established by the uncovering of a much wider hearth and by the appearance of additional evidence that the previous (probably original) chimneypiece was likely removed by the Whaley family in around 1844 when they resided in the house.

Recent academic research has further corroborated this theory which substantiates a rumour that the archbishop of Dublin, who had previously lived at No. 4, Rutland Square had originally supplied the chimneypiece to No. 86, Saint Stephen's Green when it became known as the Bishop's Room. This event probably took place in 1891 when he had vacated his previous address to relocate to the new Palace in Drumcondra, North Dublin. A contemporary document dated 1891 from the builder, William Connolly, for the new Palace shows an order from the smith and founder for nineteen cast iron mantels and grates for the lesser rooms. However, it also pertinently goes on to confirm the supplying of 'No. 3 grates and mantels & hearths to substitute those removed from No. 4, Rutland Square'.

The chimneypieces to the ground and first floor rooms at No. 4, Rutland Square are still present, but the fireplace openings to the second floor rooms are now boarded up. Their removal may have been because they were the three same grates, mantels and hearth removed at the archbishop's request and mentioned in the builder's invoice. This would have then provided the archbishop an opportunity to move one to No. 86, Saint Stephen's Green, with another incorporating scagliola work in a different style but almost certainly by the same craftsman being moved to the library of the new Palace, where it is located today. As such it is very likely that the third chimneypiece is the offered lot, given it is similarly related to the one at No. 86, St Stephen's Green and at one point was almost certainly moved to a similar location that was owned or leased to the archdiocese. It is interesting to note that there are also other later scagliola inlaid chimneypieces in the new palace which date from the very late 19th century, but these are by the firm of Sharp & Emery.

The Chimneypiece:
The Bishop's Room chimneypiece and the offered lot are stylistically near identical. This is indicated by the inlaid frieze panels which display the same design suggesting they were likely executed by the same craftsman. However, they differ in several ways including the marbles used, and the motifs employed on the pilasters to the jambs. Firstly, the Bishop's Room chimneypiece is inset to the tablet and other borders with Convento di Montessanto Sienna marble, and it has an additional carving beneath the shelf to the bed moulding, whilst the offered lot is inset in the same areas in Spanish Brocatello marble with a plain bed moulding. Secondly the Bishop's room chimneypiece depicts parrots surmounting the floral wrapped poles to the pilasters to the jambs which differs to the nightingales depicted on the offered lot. This perhaps suggests in iconographic terms that the former represents the masculine whilst the latter represents the feminine. Lastly the borders of the Bishop's Room chimneypiece are inlaid with scagliola simulating Verde Antico, whereas the offered lot has Spanish Brocatello marble to the corresponding borders.

The tradition of scagliola inlaid into marble chimneypieces is unique to Britian and Ireland. The earliest recorded example is a chimneypiece for the Duke of Lauderdale's closet at Ham House, Richmond by Baldassare dating from 1672. However, scagliola chimneypieces were produced in greater numbers from the 1760s onwards with examples recorded by the stuccadoro Domenico Bartoli, who patented his own recipe for scagliola in 1770 and was known for his proficiency in birds and flowers, and Johannes August Richter, both of whom undertook commissions at Burton Constable, East Yorkshire between 1763 and 1766. Richter is also thought to have possibly worked with Pietro Bossi at Burton Constable. Bossi, celebrated for his finely inlaid scagliola Irish chimneypieces, arrived in Dublin in 1784 and is last mentioned in a printed almanac in 1798.

It is likely that the craftsman who executed the inlay on the offered lot and the comparable at No. 86, St Stephen's Green may have been familiar with the decorative motifs and designs of scagliola chimneypieces at 6 Great Denmark Street Dublin, particularly to one with a honeysuckle and arabesque frieze by Johannes Richter. A scagliola inlaid chimneypiece by Domenico Bartoli with bird and trailing flower decoration, which was previously at Rathfarnham Castle, Co. Dublin (since removed) may have possibly also provided the inspiration to the offered lot and its comparable. Similarly, an earlier inlaid chimneypiece was installed at Hughenden Manor by the antiquary John Norris, prior to its purchase by Benjamin Disraeli which has birds to the jambs and similar frieze panels, although the scagliola work is markedly different in its handling.

The chimneypiece from the Bishop's Room and the offered lot were, prior to their later embellishments, both finished in the manner of the simpler late 18th century Irish chimneypieces produced by the Darley family, who were stone and marble cutters with limestone quarries in Co. Meath. Comparable designs for chimneypieces by the Darleys of this period are held at the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin and are of a scale to not only fit the principal rooms of No. 4, Rutland Square but also of a smaller scale for bedrooms on the second floor. The question as to why they might have been later inlaid with scagliola in the mid-19th century is touched upon by the furniture historian Herbert Cescinsky (1875–1950) in an article dating from 1911 where he comments that scagliola had been very fashionable in Ireland sixty years before, although it was known in Italy 'before the period of Adam' and that this work was practised by Bossi in Dublin. However, he continues that the techniques of its production were far from being a secret 'to a marble mason of the old school as this "Bossi-work" was in fair demand... and was made at that period as a usual thing, regardless of secret processes.' This is also corroborated by the Irish architect Sir Thomas Drew (1838-1910), a collector of 18th century chimneypieces. Writing in 1908 in an article entitled The Revival of the Art Craft of Bossi in Dublin in the 18th Century, where he discusses the Adam style reproduction chimneypiece of Henry Emery (1851-1930) of the firm Sharp & Emery, he describes Bossi's drawings of Italian Renaissance as admirable. Drew then pertinently comments that scagliola was known in the 19th century as 'Florentine marble', recalling examples of this work that he had seen in Dublin forty years before.

As to how Colonel Vandeleur and his wife may have procured a craftsman to embellish the three related chimneypieces that were likely installed on the bedroom floor of No. 4, Parnell Square is a matter of conjecture. However, given that the Colonel owned both a schooner, 'The Lady Grace' and an impressive yacht, 'The Constance', in which he and his wife and family cruised the Mediterranean and further afield, it is possible that they may have brought back, amongst the more usual souvenirs, perhaps even a scagliolisto from Livorno in Italy to inlay their plainer bedroom chimneypieces. However, as most of the family records were unfortunately destroyed in a major fire at Kilrush House in 1897, the likelihood of confirming this either way is doubtful.