Lot Essay
This rare Irish centre table has a Chinese lacquer top. Japanned and lacquered furniture was certainly being produced in Dublin during the 18th Century, as can be seen from the study of contemporary advertisements and inventories. Faulkner's Dublin Journal of 29 August 1747, carried the following advertisement:
'Now selling by Auction on Monday 31st of Aug. inst. the Stock in Trade and Household Furniture belonging to the late Mr. Joshua Robinson, Japanner, on College Green; the Stock consists of great Variety of the right India Bantam Screens, Cabinets, Cubboards [sic.], Tea Table tops etc... and several other Articles in the jappan'd Way...'
An inventory of the furnishings of Kileen Castle, County Meath, dated 23 March 1736, includes many japanned pieces including '1 Square Japan Table' in the Tea Room, and '1 Japan'd Square table' in The Green Room. (quoted in A. Coleridge and D. Fitz-Gerald, 'Eighteenth century Irish Furniture: A Provincial Manifestation', Apollo, October 1966, p. 286).
There is a pair of George II giltwood side tables, original to the furnishings, at Malahide Castle, Dublin which have tops formed from two early 18th Century Japanese lacquer panels, probably from a chest or cabinet (illustrated in G. Kenyon, The Irish Furniture at Malahide Castle, Dublin, 1994, pp. 32-33).
'Now selling by Auction on Monday 31st of Aug. inst. the Stock in Trade and Household Furniture belonging to the late Mr. Joshua Robinson, Japanner, on College Green; the Stock consists of great Variety of the right India Bantam Screens, Cabinets, Cubboards [sic.], Tea Table tops etc... and several other Articles in the jappan'd Way...'
An inventory of the furnishings of Kileen Castle, County Meath, dated 23 March 1736, includes many japanned pieces including '1 Square Japan Table' in the Tea Room, and '1 Japan'd Square table' in The Green Room. (quoted in A. Coleridge and D. Fitz-Gerald, 'Eighteenth century Irish Furniture: A Provincial Manifestation', Apollo, October 1966, p. 286).
There is a pair of George II giltwood side tables, original to the furnishings, at Malahide Castle, Dublin which have tops formed from two early 18th Century Japanese lacquer panels, probably from a chest or cabinet (illustrated in G. Kenyon, The Irish Furniture at Malahide Castle, Dublin, 1994, pp. 32-33).