Irish Arts Review

Illustrated Summary Catalogue of Drawings, Watercolours &Miniatures by Adrian le HarivelReview by: Ciarán MacGonigalIrish Arts Review (1984-1987), Vol. 1, No. 1 (Spring, 1984), p. 53Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20491601 .

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IRISH ARTS REVIEW

BOOK REVIEWS

GLASS IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF IRELAND BY

THOMAS AND RICHARD PUGH

CATRIONA MACLEOD THE STATIONERY OFFICE, DUBLIN, V2.55

(3 pp., 43 illustrations)

In the second half of the 19th century the Glasshouse in Potter's Alley, Dublin,

managed by the Pugh brothers, was the only manufacturer of Irish glass. John and Thomas Pugh's father had come from Wales to Cork, where he worked at the Cork and Waterloo Glasshouses. After the latter closed in 1835, the two sons moved to Dublin and found employment with Irwin in Potter's Alley. In 1854, with two partners, they set up the Liffey Flint Glass Works, and in 1863 took over the lease of the old premises in Potter's Alley. There they

and later Thomas's son Richard -

proceeded to turn out high class wares of all kinds and colours, which were generally acclaimed although they had to meet stiff competition from imported glass.

In the 1860's European fashion turned once again towards fine en graved table glass instead of the recently popular cut glass. The Pughs engaged four craftsmen from Bohemia, two of

whom - Tieze and Eisert -were skilled engravers. The latter died young in 1871 and only a few specimens of his

vigorous style are known. Tieze, how ever, remained with the firm until its closure in 1890, and he engraved many splendid pieces. With his Continental origin, he was attracted by the pre vailing styles of depicting woodland scenes with groups of deer, which he drew charmingly, and he was also expert in the fine engraving of fern designs. In the 1880's demand for Celtic Revival motifs led him to shamrocks, Round Towers, wolfhounds, harps and the Maid of Erin. A water jug made for

Charles Stewart Parnell includes a good likeness of the politician and a facsimile of his signature on one side with Celtic Revival emblems on the other; glass was regularly engraved to special order with crests, monograms or names.

The book is thoroughly illustrated and is an excellent account of Irish

Victorian glass which should be of considerable use in helping those who own or come across examples from Pugh's works to identify them.

Rosemary ffolliott

Tumbler, engraved by Franz Tieze c. 1875.

'4

Water jug engraved by Tieze c. 1886.

"ILLUSTRATED SUMMARY CATALOGUE OF DRAWINGS,

WATERCOLOURS & MINIATURES"

NATIONAL GALLERY OF IRELAND COMPILED BY ADRIAN LE HARIVEL,

INTRODUCTION BY HOMAN POTTERTON; PUBLISHED BY THE

NATIONAL GALLERY OF IRELAND, 1984.

This catalogue publishes for the first time the complete collection of drawings, watercolours and miniatures in the National Gallery of Ireland.

There are 5,000 items listed and described, all illustrated with repre sentative examples from sketch books and albums.

It is a fact of life, that as soon as a current catalogue of a Gallery's col lection is published, it becomes out

dated with the addition of new addi tions. However in this work, this

monumental work, I should add, Mr. Le Harivel has annotated a vast bulk of drawings, watercolours, plans, mini atures and designs which will greatly assist the historian to unravel many

mysteries in the Gallery's collection by comparison with other collections. As a result a number of current attributions and opinions will be revised.

At a national level, the work is important not least because it treats of a

major amount of material by Irish

artists like Mulvany, Petrie and Frederick William Burton. There is a marvellous range of drawings by Mrs. Delaney showing various gardens and estates which will fascinate the historian and landscape gardener alike.

The Sydney Hall-Prior courtroom sketches made for the Graphic news paper of the Parnell Commission, 1888-1890, are very much National Portrait Gallery material.

In overall terms the Catalogue shows a very haphazard approach to the

watercolour and graphic collection by the Gallery. There is an imbalance in the collection between the works of say

Harry Kernoff & MainieJellett and the very poor unrepresentative group of study drawings by William Orpen; equally the balance struck between the drawings of Harry Clarke and the

multitude of minor drawings by Flora Mitchell is absurd in view of the scale of

importance between the former and the latter. There is a massive and very interesting group of works by George

Petrie, but alas a great number of them are almost invisible in terms of photo graphy for the human eye. They are none the less represented in the catalogue for proper reasons, namely their enumeration and listing which future generations of historians can deal

with. There are minor irritations in the

descriptive captions, with some Irish

proper names misspelled, and others misunderstood. But overall a major achievement for the Gallery, and to Allied Irish Banks goes much credit for their sponsorship of this production.

Ciara'n MacGonigal

-53

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