** BOUGHT PRIOR TO AUCTION BY THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF IRELAND**
THE 'BLESSINGTON COMMODE' ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN KIRKHOFFER

AN IMPORTANT IRISH WALNUT AND SEAWEED MARQUETRY SERPENTINE CHEST, C.1745

the...

** BOUGHT PRIOR TO AUCTION BY THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF IRELAND**
THE 'BLESSINGTON COMMODE' ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN KIRKHOFFER

AN IMPORTANT IRISH WALNUT AND SEAWEED MARQUETRY SERPENTINE CHEST, C.1745

the top inlaid with the arms of William Stewart, Earl of Blesinton, of four short and one long drawer, with rounded corners, decorated overall with Berainesque marquetry inlay, fitted with elaborate ormolu side carrying handles en suite with the drawer handles, and raised at a somewhat later stage on wooden blocks fitted with wide wood barrel castors. 122cm wide, 66cm deep, 87cm high

Provenance: From a Private Collection, Ireland

Literature: Knight of Glin, Irish Arts Review, Vol. 13 (1997), The Marquetry Decoration of Early 18th Century Irish Furniture (illustrated)

It was the renowned furniture historian and collector R.W Symonds who first posited in 1956 that a curious collection of early to mid-18th century marquetry inlaid writing cabinets had an Irish origin. Indeed, the piece in the Victoria & Albert Museum was traditionally known as ‘Dean Swift’s Cabinet’. The Knight of Glin, who had worked in the furniture department of the V&A, was convinced that this was so and went on a hunt to find other examples.

This culminated in his article in the Irish Arts Review Vol 13 (1997) where he conclusively demonstrated that the marquetry inlay incorporated into unequivocally Irish types of furniture was supplied by the same workshop which must have been in Dublin. The ‘Blessington Commode’ had just appeared at the London Art market and the armorials of an Irish nobleman, similarities of the motifs in the inlay and the use of native veneers such as holly, were enough for him to publish it in this article as 'probably Irish' and assigned the date of 1745, the creation of Stewart’s earldom. The continental influenced design of the piece and this late date puzzled him.

A breakthrough came when in 2007 the Art Institute of Chicago revealed that their desk was signed John Kirkhoffer/fecit/1732. Kirkhoffer from the Palatinate is recorded in Dublin in the early 18th century, and he founded a cabinet making business that lasted into the 19th century. Indeed, it became “by appointment to the Lord Lieutenant and The Board of Works,” and supplied most of the official buildings with furniture, fitted bookcases and fixtures.

The same inlay on the Chicago cabinet of opposed winged griffins appears on the ‘Blessington Commode’ and the continental shape of the base of the Chicago cabinet clearly demonstrates that Kirkhoffer continued to work in this style. Also, the V&A revisited the inscription on their piece which connected it to Dean Swift. It didn’t, but, more importantly, it recorded a Dublin address.

The ‘Blessington Commode’ is unique, and its history lost. Stewart lived in Henrietta Street and possessed the great mansion house at Blessington. But he had vacated Henrietta Street before his earldom was created and Blessington was burnt in the 1798 rising.

The ‘Blessington Commode’ keeps many secrets, but Kirkhoffer would surely have made others like it and most probably they are adrift somewhere, their Dublin origins unrecognised. As it stands the ‘Blessington Commode’ is the most important piece of Irish mid-18th century inlaid furniture extant.

Literature: Glin & Peill, Irish Furniture, Yale University Press, London & New Haven (2007) p 57-58, illustrated fig 65 and 66; Knight of Glin, Irish Arts Review, Vol. 13 (1997)

 

The Stewarts of Ramelton whose arms are inlaid on the ‘Blessington Commode’

The Stewarts of Ramelton were ‘undertakers’ of the plantation of Ulster on vast tracts of land stolen from the indigenous land owners. This wealth, combined with successful military careers, gave them a baronetcy in 1623 and in 1682 they became Viscounts Mountjoy.

Meanwhile the Boyles through lucrative advancements in political and ecclesiastical circles in Dublin had accumulated substantial wealth and built a great mansion on their acquired estates at Blessington, Co. Wicklow. Through the marriage of 2nd Viscount Mountjoy, to Anne Boyle, the daughter and heiress to Murrough Boyle, Viscount Blesinton (sic) the Stewarts added the Boyle wealth to that of their own. Their son William Stewart, 3rd Viscount Mountjoy had lived between London and a family estate at Silchester in Hampshire but in 1733 returned to Ireland and married Eleanor FitzGerald of County Cork. They were recorded as one of Dublin’s most fashionable couples amongst the tight-kinit inter-related society that centred on Henrietta Street. Stewart also took an active role in the intellectual and commercial life of the capital. He backed the Theatre Royal in Aungier Street, subscribed to the Dublin booksellers, became Grand Master of the Masonic Order and an early member of the Dublin Society (later RDS). This society promoted agriculture and industry and Stewart was keen to forward the family linen and trading businesses at Ramelton.

It is reasonable to assume that he would have been, with his exposure to continental tastes and a member of The Society of Dilettanti, familiar with the cabinet making workshop of John Kirkhoffer. Perhaps the commode was an unfinished commission and although he had left Dublin by 1745, the new Earl of Blesinton may have ordered that his elevation be recorded in the splendid armorial ‘achievement’ that we see on the ‘Blessington Commode’. To no avail, his two sons predeceased him and the earldom was extinguished on his death in 1769. A new Earldom of Blessington was created for his relatives, the Gardiner family, but this too only lasted one generation and now only the ‘Blessington Commode’ stands as a record of a fleeting and blazing constellation of social aspiration and grandeur.

 

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