the charlemont house medal cabinet

Irish Arts Review

The Charlemont House Medal CabinetAuthor(s): Cynthia O'ConnorSource: Irish Arts Review (1984-1987), Vol. 1, No. 2 (Summer, 1984), pp. 23-27Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20491608 .

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IRISH ARTS REVIEW

THE CHARLEMONT HOUSE MEDAL CABINET a_

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I E _ Detail from Lord Charlemont's Medal Cabinet

Born in Dublin in 1728, James Caulfeild, 4th Viscount and later 1st

Earl of Charlemont, succeeded at the age of six to the Viscountcy and con

siderable estates in Co. Tyrone and Co. Armagh. Not being sent to school, his education was entrusted 'to a series of

tutors and finally to the Rev. Edward Murphy, a classical scholar, with whom

in 1746, he set out on the Grand Tour.

This tour was remarkable; it lasted nine years (five of which were spent in Italy) and included a Levantine voyage. They visited Constantinople, Egypt, the coast of Asia Minor, the Greek Islands and

Athens. During these years, Charle mont's natural sensitivity to the Arts developed to a high level of connois seurship. As a result, upon his return to Dublin, he built at Marino, near Clontarf, the habitable temple known as the Casino, Ireland's most celebrated

Neo-Classical building, and also the Dublin Town House, known as Charle mont House, both buildings to the

The first Earl of Charlemont, a staunch patriot described by

Edmund Burke as the most public spirited, best natured and best bred

man in Ireland was also a great connoisseur. Cynthia O'Connor

who has spent many years studying his letters, reports here the

discovery of Charlemont's Medal Cabinet designed for him by Sir

William Chambers.

designs of Sir William Chambers, whom he had met and befriended in Italy.

Modern evaluation of Charlemont's achievements, while respecting the inte grity of his politics, his strong opposition to the Union and his colourful role as the Volunteer Earl (Commander in

Chief of the Irish Volunteers) places greater emphasis upon his influence on the Arts of Ireland. His aim was to con

tribute to improve the taste of his

country and in this, he undoubtedly succeeded.

The finding at Elveden of the highly important medal cabinet from Charle

mont's dispersed and mainly lost collec tions, is the first discovery in a long drawn search for the missing furniture designed by Sir William Chambers for Charlemont House and, of greater urgency, for the Casino. Restoration of the Casino by the Office of Public

Works nears completion, but as yet no important piece of its original furniture has been traced. Therefore it is some what ironic that this first piece to be dis covered was designed for Charlemont House and specifically for one of the smaller rooms leading off the famous

Main Library, which was partly demol ished and incorporated into the modern part of the building, when, in 1929, Dublin Corporation took over the house.

The dispersal of the collections began in 1865 when Charlemont's grandson,

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IRISH ARTS REVIEW

THE CHARLEMONT HOUSE MEDAL CABINET

Lord Charlemont's Medal Cabine tMMedal cases at left hand side

the 3rd Earl, sent to Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, the library of rare books and manuscripts and the collection of coins and medals from Charlemont House. The library was catalogued for an eight day sale, but tragically a fire on Sotheby's premises destroyed the greater part. Previously on 27th and 28th June, the sale of the coins and medals had taken place and was described as:

"the valuable collection of Greek & Roman coins formed by A Nobleman of great literary and Artistic Taste, Deceased."'

"This cabinet comprises among other rarities, a Tetradrachm of Phyrrus II of Epirus; a Didrachm of Rhausus; unique coins of Aspendus, Rheuscuporis IV, and others; above one hundred Roman Aurei Nerva Faustina Senior, Petronius Maximus, and Galla Placidia; Brass medallions of Constantinople (about the period of Constantine the Great) etc."2

The sale realised a total of ?644.15.0.,

a fraction of the estimated value of the books. The word 'cabinet' is obviously used in the wider sense since there is no lot for the actual medal cabinet, which is now known not to have passed through the English salerooms, but to have come from Dublin directly to Elveden.

On the credit side, it should be noted that the 3rd Earl presented among other things to the Royal Irish Academy, his grandfather's papers, which included the voluminous correspondence later pub lished (incompletely and not always accurately) by the Historical Manu scripts Commission. The original letters are the main source of information, but for want of any accompanying drawings and designs, it is difficult to form a clear picture of the furnishings discussed. The presence at Elveden of working drawings with the cabinet is a most fortunate bonus; no others sent to Ireland have survived.

However, in two other instances, we have in lieu of designs detailed accounts: we know the dimensions of a pier table with a lapis lazuli veneered top and ormulu border that was supplied by Joseph Wilton in 1769 and in 1768 from Florence a statuary marble chimney piece with lapis lazuli and ormulu enrichments made by Francis Harwood. In this con text it is interesting to note that accord ing to the Irish Builder, by 1894 a lapis lazuli plaque, formerly with the chimney piece in the Saloon of the Casino, had disappeared.

Had any of the lost furniture been insignificant, its total disappearance

would have been more easily understood. But now that we are at last confronted with a material object, as at Elveden, we find documentation to be no aid to immediate recognition, although, after examination, indisputable proof of identification.

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IRISH ARTS REVIEW


If Mr Sean O'Criadain, with his specialized knowledge of old Irish exhibitions and sales, had not drawn attention to the following entry in the catalogue of the first Exhibition of the Society of Arts and Crafts in 1895 at the University buildings of Dublin, the vital clue would have been missing.

"RETROSPECTIVE SECTION The contents of this Section have been

selected with a view to give a general apercu of Irish Art-craftmanship at a period when design was more or less homogenous. The objects shown here have not been chosen for unusual or elaborate features, but are such as would naturally find places in an average home.

1. COIN CABINET, constructed from the design of Sir William Chambers, for the

Earl of Charlemont, K.P. Originally put up in Charlemont House, Rutland-square,

Dublin. Lord IVEAGH."3

The foreword was hardly applicable: Charlemont House was no 'average home' having been in its heyday the repository of Charlemont's extensive collections. Subsequently Mr Austin Dunphy traced the Journal and Proceed ings of the Society and found the first hint of the size and nature of the cabinet;

"The architectural character of some of the cabinet-work of the day, for example, was strikingly apparent in the large coin cabinet (No. I in the catalogue)."4

The first news of there being a large medal cabinet at Elveden, all previous enquiries over many months having failed, brought about a careful re-shifting of the original documentation, bearing in mind that due to Charlemont's frequent visits to London, much of the relevant discussion could have taken place in Chambers' offices and therefore the evidence was likely to be fragment ary.

The earliest mention of the cabinet is in a letter from Chambers to Charle

mont dated August 25th 1767,

"I have inclosed the designs for the medal drawers. The poor man who had the bronzes in hand hath laid at the point of death for some time and there is no hope of his recover-y; so that as soon as I can get the

models I must employ some other person to do the work, both for the medal cases and the Tritons. Alken has carved one of the little heads for the corners of the doors of the

medal cases. It is very fine, but as he tells me he cannot do them under three guineas and a half a head, I have stopped his further

progress till I hear from your lordship, and I think antique patterae or nails which will cost but a trifle will answer the purpose almost as well. Be pleased to send the inscriptions which are to be on the shields of the medal cases, for Mr Anderson has lost the former ones. "-5

This first letter introduces Alker Severin, wood carver, whose work foi Chambers is recorded fully by Johr Harris,6 and the almost unknowr Diederich Nicholas Anderson identified by Nicholas Goodison.7 Charlemont's inscriptions for the shields read NUMISM FAMILIARUM ROMAN; NUMISM IMPERA TORUM AUR ET.ARG.; NUMISM IMPERA TORUM AENEA and NUMISMAT GRECA REGUM ET ILLUSTRIUM; NUMISM GRECA URBIUM ET POPULORUM: NUMISM MISC ELLANEA.

The next mention of the cabinet is ir a letter dated 12th September, 1767,

when Chambers reported,

"Alken I have set about a head of Plato to match that of Homer, and also about a pattera to supply the places of the heads. The hercules Musarem is bosted but the wood being damp he has been obliged to dry. kiln it; when that is done he will set about the finishing and do it with all possible care. "8

Along the left hand margin of this letter Charlemont has written in penci the word 'Chippendale'. No plausible explanation for Charlemont's annota. tion occurs. However Chippendale is known to have collaborated on occasior with Chambers, notably at Melbourne House, Piccadilly.

The heads of Homer and Plato are missing. The little heads seen in the section drawing at the roundel angels ol the lower doors, are replaced in the execution, as Chambers advised, by patterae. The Hercules Musarem corre. sponds to the carved figure of the centre

medallion, where we find Hercules, with lyre, lion skin and club, representing the

Leader of the Muses, a title more usually given to Apollo.

Chambers' letter of October 2nd tells of Anderson's death and his wife being out of town,

"... so that I know not what was begun and what was not: but I find the ornaments for the medal cases are cast and his man will finish them as well as he could have done himself."9

It is not until 19th December that we

hear again of the cabinet. Chambers wrote,

"Mrs Anderson has sent me home the bas reliefs for the medal cases but they are ungilt and Incompleat so that I must get some one to finish & Gild them and they have lost the drawings so that I am greatly at a loss to know how they are to be put together I will however endeavour to get over all these difficulties & send the things as soon as possible to Chester. Mrs Anderson is in great distress for Money she brought in her bill and expected to be paid directly, which I should have done but for two reasons, the first that I did not know whether your Lordship approved of her charge, the second that I had no money to pay her with, for the devil has tempted me to Build again, the consequence of which everybody that hath built knows very well Inclosed I send your Lordship her bill part of which refers to another bill Already sent and though the Amount is considerable I am told by those who understand it that the charge is not extravagant."10

By February 9th, 1768 Chambers, who had been away in the meantime, had paid Charlemont's draft of January 2nd to Mrs Anderson,

"... to whom it was exceedingly acceptable and she begd I would offer her most hearty thanks to your Lordship. I believe we shall be able to finish the ornaments for the medal cases exactly as we have found some figured sketches relating thereto there is no mistake about the Ebony Shields &c: the mahogany ones mentioned in the Lady's bill having only been tumed for models to cast the borders upon... Wilton says the table is all finished but that Anderson's death prevented his having the border however it is now finished by another hand. "I1

The shields are, as might be expected, of ebony. Wilton's table, for which Anderson was to have made the ormulu mount, was almost certainly the table with the veneered lapis lazuli top.

By March 12th the ornaments for the medal cases were nearly finished and would be "very soon sent", thus con cluding all direct reference to the cabinet. But on November 16th Cham bers wrote,

"Your Lordship desires me to send you any bills I may have by me here. Inclosed are three

Viz Alkens ....... 34.11. 7 Haywards ....... 6. 12. - Evans ....... 1. 1.

Ls41. 14. 7"12

Though the amounts are small, but,

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IRISH ARTS REVIEW


perhaps, the final bills of a running account, it is tempting to think that George Evans, as gilder, was brought in to finish Anderson's work and that the chimney piece of Chambers' section drawing, was executed, the present one being a replacement, by Richard Hayward. It is interesting to note that the decoration of the centre panel is repeated, crossed branches and lyre, on the podium urn of the Casino.

It remains to consider, the Arts and Crafts Society having exhibited the cabinet as an example of Irish craftsman ship, just how much of the work was done in Dublin. Possibly an Irish cabinet-maker was responsible for the mahogany frame, the shelves and drawers and for fitting the veneered woods sent from England. There are some discrepancies between the design and execution, accounted for to a certain extent by the revised instructions of the section drawing.

The cabinet, in its rediscovery, presents some surprises, not least it having been made to fill the side of a room; it is 14 feet 7 inches in length and 12 feet high, but would appear to have been trimmed to fit its present incon gruous setting at Elveden.

An investigation at Charlemont House, now the Municipal Art Gallery of Dublin, also presents a surprise. It has not been generally understood that whereas the Main Library was demol ished, something is left of the two smaller rooms at the east end, which led off it. They have now been converted into one room by the removal of the dividing wall between them. The ent rance from the demolished Main Library to the west having been bricked up, the approach is now from the south, through the modern gallery, which is built over the former garden, and up steps, which encroach far into the first room. This room can be identified as 'the cabinet of

medals', the one beyond, though no longer separate, as 'the cabinet of anti quities'. Against the east wall a monstrous concrete 'stack' has been built across part of the chimney breast, the same upon which the cabinet was originally centred. A simple cornice survives, and, by some miracle, the frag

mentary plaster-work of the ceiling. With the aid of Chambers' instructions and our newly found knowledge of the cabinet itself, it no longer takes much

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Elevation by Chambers with instructions

imagination to reconstruct the room seen by Arthur Young and Charles Topham Bowden in the 18th century.

Why Chambers should have revised his design is not clear: the cabinet was to have been all mahogany with the centre medallion and ornaments painted white on a green ground. The instructions of the section drawing read,

"AB the walls of this room must be painted in Oyle upon the troweld Stucco, of a faint peagreen colour dead, the Cornice, Architraves of the Windows, and door, also the frieze and cornice of the door the Base & Surbase and dado of the room with the Bas relief and ornaments over the chimney and the frieze cornice & pediment over them

must all be painted dead white. The chimney piece must all be of White marble."'13

"The medal cases entirely of mahogany (crossed out) from A quite up to B and from

C to D."'14

"Instead of mahogany are to be of yellow sandal wood fineer'd upon Mahogany -The

Ornaments, Moldings and carved work are

to be of Turkey Box - The Flat Parts only of Sanders wood, fineer'd as marked on the Drawing - These woods I shall send from hence. "15

"The depth of the break at G is marked on the fullsize drawing. "116

The full size drawing is missing. Per haps the alterations were made at Charlemont's instigation. Undoubtedly he had his own concept of the library wing and its use and purpose; ideas formed through his association with eminent librarians, like Cardinal Passionei, and literati such as Montes quieu and Maffei.

Of Maffei, Charlemont wrote,

"I had the honour of being well acquainted with this illustrious personage ... During my abode at Verona I obtained this high advantage, though scarcely past my Boyhood, and was with the most conde scending Politeness, invited to his House, where, among many other Favours conferred on me, I had the unmerited Honour of assist

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IRISH ARTS REVIEW


Design by Chambers for surbase, cornice and pilasters

rSt:00 :~~~~~/400.

Design by Chambers for the plaque of the right hand side medal cases

ing at an Academy, which met there weekly under his auspices."'17

It is from Lady Mary Wortley Montagu that we learn of Maffei having, besides his collection of antiquities, two large cabinets of medals, intaglios and cameos arranged in order and how he delighted in the instruction of young people, who

were obliged to find the medal or explain the inscription, which illustrated a point in the discussion.18 One is tempted to suspect that there was at

Charlemont House, an echo of Verona, not only in the cabinets of antiquities and medals, but in the founding by Charlemont of the Royal Irish Academy, which had its first meeting there. Charlemont was President of the Royal Irish Academy from its establishment in 1785 until his death at Charlemont House in 1799.

When Charlemont House came up for sale on 8th November 1870, it was advertised as being unoccupied, 'immed

iate possession can be given to the purchaser',19 and with a large hall at the rere of the Mansion formerly used as the

Charlemont library, 50 feet long, 30 feet wide and 40 feet high, well lighted from the top.

This would seem to imply that prior to the sale, such furnishings and fittings as

were to be used at Roxborough, the Co. Tyrone seat, where the 3rd Earl was engaged in a grandiose building opera tion, had already been removed. The furniture had still been in place when photographs were taken, though not of the cabinet, in 1865, the year the coins

were sold at Sotheby's. Up to 1869 the Dublin Directory gave Charlemont House as the 3rd Earl's town residence but The Times (London) of 19th February, 1867 carried the announce ment "The only address in Ireland of the Earl and Countess of Charlemont from henceforth will be Roxborough, Moy, County Tyrone." In 1871 Charlemont

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House, Dublin, became the General Register office. The 3rd Earl spent his last years in France where he died

without issue at Biarritz in 1892; his widow lived on until 1925.

Clive Aslet informs us in his history of Elveden that the cabinet, with other Irish furniture was supplied to Lord Iveagh by one Walsh of Dublin, who estimated ?76 for repairing and fixing the cabinet. Patrick J. Walsh of 20,

Bachelor's Walk was cabinet-maker, upholsterer, undertaker, valuator and auctioneer, and evidently a dealer. There appears to have been no public auction of the contents of Charlemont House. Possibly Walsh was called in, as cabinet-maker, to dismantle the library wing furniture for Roxborough, and to effect a sale of the residue.

Cynthia O'Connor

In the preparation of this article I wish to acknowledge the co-operation of: The Council of the Royal Irish Academy Messrs. Christie, Manson and Woods

The Knight of Glin * Mr. Sean O'Criadain andiMr. John Redmill

All Illustrations courtesy of Christie's

NOTES

1. Royal Irish Academy: Charlemont papers. 12.R.8.

2. Ibid.

3. Arts and Crafts Society of Ireland, Catalogue of the First Exhibition, Dublin 1895.

4. Ibid, Journal and Proceedings 1896.

5. R.I.A. op. cit. 12.R.10, no. 10.

6. J. Harris, Sir William Chambers, London 1970.

7. N. Goodison, Ormulu: the Work of Matthew

Boulton, London 1974. 8. R.I.A. op. cit. 12.R.10, no. 12.

9. Ibid. no. 14. 10. Idib, no. 16.

11. Ibidl2.R.12.no.52.

12. Ibid. no. 61.

13. One of three drawings sold with the cabinet.

The other two are 'Section of study on door

side* with verso details of'surbase, cornice and

pilasters,' and a design for the ormulu.

14. Ibid.

15. Ibid.

16. Ibid.

17. R.I.A. op. cit. 12.R.3. note to p.375. 18. ed. R. Halsband The Complete Letters of Lady

Mary Wortley Montagu, Oxford 1966.

19. Dublin Evening Mail 6th October 1870.

"Information about the sale of the

cabinet and its destination will be found in SALEROOM NEWS on page 62."



the charlemont house medal cabinet

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