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Lot Essay
This pair of bookcases may well have been made by the Dublin firm of Mack, Williams and Gibton, the leading Irish cabinet-makers of the first quarter of the 19th century, who were responsible for furnishing many Irish country houses including Ballynegall, Co. Westmeath, Borris House, Co. Carlow, Ballyfin, Co. Leix and Lissadell, Co. Sligo. All were supplied with library bookcases and a section of the Ballynegall library was sold anonymously, Sotheby's, London, 14 November 1986, lot 143.
THE PROVENANCE
The shipping label refers to Rockshire House, Co. Kilkenny, the home of Sir Edward Garraway, a retired colonial. The house, overlooking the city of Waterford on the River Suir, was built in the 1780s by the Newport banking family of Waterford. The pencil inscription makes reference to a Mrs. Pope and while Pembroke Terrace does not appear in the Dublin directories, the joint arms of Newport and Pope appear in the hall at Rockshire, providing a link between the Popes, a Waterford shipping family, with Garraway. Presumably the coat-of-arms is the result of a marriage.
THE PROVENANCE
The shipping label refers to Rockshire House, Co. Kilkenny, the home of Sir Edward Garraway, a retired colonial. The house, overlooking the city of Waterford on the River Suir, was built in the 1780s by the Newport banking family of Waterford. The pencil inscription makes reference to a Mrs. Pope and while Pembroke Terrace does not appear in the Dublin directories, the joint arms of Newport and Pope appear in the hall at Rockshire, providing a link between the Popes, a Waterford shipping family, with Garraway. Presumably the coat-of-arms is the result of a marriage.