19TH CENTURY, ADAPTED FROM A PAIR OF TABLES

This mahogany writing-table once formed the centrepiece of the library that was fitted out in the 'Adams' manner at Castletown, Co. Kildare following the marriage in 1868 of Thomas Conolly (d. 1876) to Elizabeth Shaw, daughter of Joseph Shaw of Temple House, Co. Kildare. Its antique-fluted frieze enriched with sunflowered paterae harmonised with the entablature of the bookcases lining the walls. Formed from two side tables, it is designed en suite with a further pair of side-tables also with fitted bookshelf-stretchers. Its design with paired legs, of hermed pilasters in the Roman tripod fashion, derived from the George III sideboard-table pattern of the 1760s. Its present form, comprising paired and addorsed tables, reflects the 19th Century practice of removing 'commode-bureau-tables' from window-piers to stand back-to-back in the centre of a room (cf. Althorp library writing-table illustrated in P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, rev. ed., 1954, vol. III, p. 335). This elegant style reflects the revived interest in the later 19th Century in the George III 'antique' fashion that had been popularised by The Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam, 1773/4. The 'Adams' taste was encouraged by exhibits at the Great International Exhibitions held in the later 19th Century in London and Paris.

We are grateful to David Griffin of the Irish Architectural Archive for the information on the table in the 1893 Castletown Inventory.