LATE 19TH CENTURY

The design and technique of this chimneypiece is executed in a manner accredited to the late 18th century itinerant craftsman, Pietro Bossi, the subject of an article published by Conor O'Neill in The Journal of the Irish Georgian Society ('In Search of Bossi', vol.I, 1998, pp. 146-175). Bossi, who arrived in Dublin prior to 1785, is listed in Wilson's Dublin Directory as 'Inlayer in marble and Stucco-worker' at no. 22 (and later no. 38) Fleet Street from 1785 until 1798. The art of scagliola inlay, utilizing scaglia, or marble chips, was a highly specialized technique that became fashionable in England and Ireland in the late 18th century although it was introduced to Britain as early as the 1670s. In his A New Collection of Chimney Pieces... of 1781, George Richardson writes 'We frequently see friezes and pilasters inlaid with various coloured marbles, but they always appear flat and dull: on the contrary, those done in scagliola in various colours, look lively and brilliant'. Relative to chimneypieces executed in England, which often combined scagliola with encaustic and painted images and ormolu, Irish examples are more restrained and the colours of a stronger tonality offering a stark contrast to the elegant white marble.

The chimneypieces which utilizes Bossi's technique using graduated tones of marble, differs slightly in its finer points of execution. A possible attribution may be to the Victorian makers Sharp and Emery of Dublin. Alfred Sharp and Henry Emery probably set up their business prior to 1850. Their 'Monumental Works' located at 17, Great Brunswick Street, Dublin appears in the Directories after 1870. A 1903 advertisement in The Connoisseur proudly asserts: 'DUBLIN BOSSI INLAY'. This beautiful lost art revived. Old examples restored. Any designs can now be executed.' By 1904, they had a showroom at 28, Berners Street in London while the last entry that appears is for Henry Emery at 10, Belvedere Road, Dublin in 1929.