Publication date: 26 January 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781800083547
Number of illustrations: 247
Enriching Architecture
Craft and its conservation in Anglo-Irish building production, 1660–1760
Christine Casey (Editor), Melanie Hayes (Editor)
Refinement and enrichment of surfaces in stone, wood and plaster is a fundamental aspect of early modern architecture which has been marginalised by architectural history.
Enriching Architecture aims to retrieve and rehabilitate surface achievement as a vital element of early modern buildings in Britain and Ireland. Rejected by modernism, demeaned by the conceptual ‘turn’ and too often reduced to its representative or social functions, we argue for the historical legitimacy of creative craft skill as a primary agent in architectural production. However, in contrast to the connoisseurial and developmental perspectives of the past, this book is concerned with how surfaces were designed, achieved and experienced.
The contributors draw upon the major rethinking of craft and materials within the wider cultural sphere in recent years to deconstruct traditional, oppositional ways of thinking about architectural production. This is not a craft for craft’s sake argument but an effort to embed the tangible findings of conservation and curatorial research within an evidence-led architectural history that illuminates the processes of early modern craftsmanship. The book explores broad themes of surface treatment such as wainscot, rustication, plasterwork, and staircase embellishment together with chapters focused on virtuoso buildings and set pieces which illuminate these themes.
Praise for Enriching Architecture
‘Edited by Christine Casey and Melanie Hayes, eleven expert authors – conservators, curators, artists, geologists, historians and more – take a refreshing diversion from the embedded ‘top-down’ approach to analysing buildings through their designers and paymasters, instead drilling through archival records to learn about the skills and techniques of the shadowy souls who put them together.’
Irish Arts Review
‘The essays in this volume collectively represent a substantial contribution to knowledge and are a tribute to all those involved.’
Construction History
List of figures
List of contributors
List of abbreviations
Foreword
Glenn Adamson
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Enriching architecture: craft and its conservation in Anglo-Irish architectural production, 1660–1760
Christine Casey and Melanie Hayes
Part 1: Loss and retrieval
1 ‘Onslow Palace’: new evidence of eighteenth-century craft technique at Clandon Park
Sophie Chessum
2 Piercing the surface: virtuoso wooden staircases from Cassiobury Park and Eyrecourt Castle
Mechthild Baumeister and Andrew Tierney
3 Fragments of eighteenth-century craftsmanship: the Pearson collection
Peter Pearson
4 Experiments with historic light in Kensington Palace’s early eighteenth-century interiors
Lee Prosser
5 Retrieving craft practice on the early eighteenth-century building site Melanie Hayes
6 Conserving craft in eighteenth-century buildings: the role of the conservation architect
Tony Barton
Part 2: Design and making
7 The geometry of rustication: an eighteenth-century case study
Edward McParland
8 The rough and the smooth: stone use in Dublin 1720–60
Patrick Wyse Jackson and Louise Caulfield
9 Drawing out a surface in lime and hair
Jenny Saunt
10 ‘Agreeable to live in’: the wainscoted interior in eighteenth-century Britain and Ireland
Christine Casey
11 A glorious ascent: staircase design, construction and craft in the circle of Richard Castle
Andrew Tierney
Index
DOI: 10.14324/111.9781800083547
Number of illustrations: 247
Publication date: 26 January 2023
PDF ISBN: 9781800083547
EPUB ISBN: 9781800083578
Hardback ISBN: 9781800083561
Paperback ISBN: 9781800083554
Christine Casey (Editor) 
Christine Casey is Professor in Architectural History and a fellow of Trinity College Dublin. She has published widely on architectural history and craftsmanship in Ireland, Britain and Europe. Her books include the definitive reference work on Dublin city, Dublin (Yale University Press, 2005), and Making Magnificence (Yale University Press, 2017).
Melanie Hayes (Editor)
Melanie Hayes is Post-Doctoral Research Fellow of the Irish Research Council CRAFTVALUE project at Trinity College Dublin. She is author of The Best Address in Town: Henrietta Street, Dublin and its First Residents, 1720-80 (Four Courts Press, 2020).
‘The essays in this volume collectively represent a substantial contribution to knowledge and are a tribute to all those involved.’
Construction History
‘Edited by Christine Casey and Melanie Hayes, eleven expert authors – conservators, curators, artists, geologists, historians and more – take a refreshing diversion from the embedded ‘top-down’ approach to analysing buildings through their designers and paymasters, instead drilling through archival records to learn about the skills and techniques of the shadowy souls who put them together.’
Irish Arts Review
Related titles
Sign up to our newsletter
Don't miss out!
Subscribe to the UCL Press newsletter for the latest open access books,
journal CfPs, news and views from our authors and much more!