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Lot Essay
The richly embossed and engraved plate, with serpentine ribbon-scrolled border in the George IV French Louis XV fashion bears the presentation inscription beneath a view of the Dublin Custom House crowned by a figure of Commerce and framed by shipping anchored in the port. Wreathed in an Irish shamrock border, incorporating the English rose and Scottish thistle, are oak-wreathed escutcheons displaying water-deity heads, emblematical of Ireland's principal rivers; and these are flanked by emblematical laurel and oak wreathed trophies that celebrate Ireland's agriculture (corn and implements), industry (beehive), trade (pennant, anchor and rudder) and commerce (ships and barrels).
A bas-relief of Britannia and Hibernia united in triumph in the Nature deity's shell chariot guided by Neptune is displayed in an oak-wreathed medallion at the head of the plate, while that at the base celebrates the flourishing state of Ireland's trade and agriculture. Here the harp badge of Ireland, displayed in a flourishing coastal landscape dominated by the Celtic tower, symbol of the Irish nation, is guarded by and Irish wolf-hound and framed by bales, barrels and an ox. The upper bas-relief recalls Augistino Carlini's allegory for the Custom House tympanum entitled "The friendly union of Great Britain and Ireland with Neptune driving away Famine and Despair", the riverine heads (running clockwise) represent the Liffey (the trident-crowned Anna Livia), Shannon, Bann and Suir, and derive from keystones conceived by the Dublin modeller and sculptor Edward Smyth (d.1812) for the Custom House, that had been designed in 1781 by the architect James Gandon (d.1823). The smaller salvers are chased with masks which depict The Lagan Slany, Boyne, Foyle, Lee, Nore, Blackwater and Barrow. These fourteen masks which symbolise the Atlantic and Ireland's principal rivers, were listed in the Dublin Evening Post of 1st May 1784 and have since been regarded as 'the finest Irish sculptures of the eighteenth century', (see P. Lenehan, Edward Smyth, Dublin's Sculptor, Irish Arts Review, 1989-1990, pp. 67-76)
A bas-relief of Britannia and Hibernia united in triumph in the Nature deity's shell chariot guided by Neptune is displayed in an oak-wreathed medallion at the head of the plate, while that at the base celebrates the flourishing state of Ireland's trade and agriculture. Here the harp badge of Ireland, displayed in a flourishing coastal landscape dominated by the Celtic tower, symbol of the Irish nation, is guarded by and Irish wolf-hound and framed by bales, barrels and an ox. The upper bas-relief recalls Augistino Carlini's allegory for the Custom House tympanum entitled "The friendly union of Great Britain and Ireland with Neptune driving away Famine and Despair", the riverine heads (running clockwise) represent the Liffey (the trident-crowned Anna Livia), Shannon, Bann and Suir, and derive from keystones conceived by the Dublin modeller and sculptor Edward Smyth (d.1812) for the Custom House, that had been designed in 1781 by the architect James Gandon (d.1823). The smaller salvers are chased with masks which depict The Lagan Slany, Boyne, Foyle, Lee, Nore, Blackwater and Barrow. These fourteen masks which symbolise the Atlantic and Ireland's principal rivers, were listed in the Dublin Evening Post of 1st May 1784 and have since been regarded as 'the finest Irish sculptures of the eighteenth century', (see P. Lenehan, Edward Smyth, Dublin's Sculptor, Irish Arts Review, 1989-1990, pp. 67-76)