Adam's The Irish Library Wednesday 17th April 2019

146 181 AN IRISH GEORGE II SECRETAIRE BOOKCASE, ATTRIBUTED TO CHRISTOPHER HEARN OF DUBLIN, the broken pediment and scroll rosette terminals, centred by carved eagle, above twin mirrored panel doors enclosing a shelved interior and two short drawers, on a kneehole base with single long frieze secretaire drawer, above an arrangement of short drawers and three recessed central drawers, all with brass drop handles and lock plates, raised on shaped bracket feet. 245cm high, 104cm wide, 58cm deep € 15,000 - 20,000 The 18th century secretaire cabinet was renowned for being a highly functional item of furniture. Usually housed in apartment bedrooms it served a variety of purposes as a clothes-chest, writing bureau, dressing table and cabinet for storage of books. Placed within ladies’ dressing rooms they ZHUH RIWHQ ȴQLVKHG ZLWK RUQDWH LQODLG GHWDLOLQJ RU ȴQHO\ FDUYHG WR PDWFK WKH GHFRUDWLYH VW\OH RI WKH room. However, as John Hardy notes “those provided for the gentlemen’s libraries or studies were generally more sombre and architectonic, especially during George II’s reign, when the enthusiasm for ‘Roman’ architecture was combined with a fashion for mahogany”. This ‘fashion for mahogany’ was instigated in part after the abolition of the American timber tax in 1721. It created a favourable market for an increase in the importation of the wood from the West Indies. As a material it became synonymous with the Irish cabinet-markers craft. The combination of ‘Palladian’ architectural features particularly in the scroll-pediments and robust pedestal bases UHȵHFW WKH VWURQJ LQȵXHQFH RI ΖWDOLDQ FODVVLFLVP LQ WK FHQWXU\ ΖULVK IXUQLWXUH GHVLJQ This secretaire cabinet is part of a group of very similar pieces which have been attributed to Chris- topher Hearn of Dublin. A cabinetmaker and joiner, Hearn opened his business on Fishamble Street in June 1753. A comparable example can be found in the drawing room of Newbridge House, Co. Dublin. The cabinet was recorded by Lady Elizabeth Cobbe in her accounts book in 1764, for a sum of £11.17.6. While the item is not stamped with a maker’s name, Hearn had supplied considerable amounts of furniture to Newbridge House at that time. Another example of the cabinet, although on this occasion without glazed panel doors, discovered in the attic of Adare Manor, Co. Limerick is now currently housed in the collection of the V&A Museum. See The Knight of Glin and James Peil, ΖULVK )XUQLWXUH , London and New Haven: Yale University Press, SS ȴJ FDW -RKQ +DUG\ Ȇ 7KH $GDUH %XUHDX &DELQHW DQG ΖWV 2ULJLQVȇ , Irish Art’s Review, vol. 12, 1996, pp.168-9