Two details of the plasterwork in the dining room at Castle Coole, County Fermanagh. Constructed between 1789 and 1796 for Armar Lowry-Corry, first Earl of Belmore the house is considered to be architect James Wyatt’s Neoclassical masterpiece. For the decoration he used his usual team of London craftsmen including stuccadore James Rose who sent five of his regular plasterers to do the job. John Martin Robinson in his recently published monograph on Wyatt quotes a contemporary report that the workers were unhappy in Fermanagh, finding it ‘an unhealthy place, that most of them are ill and there is not lodging for them but in damp rooms.’ None of this discontent is reflected in the graceful plasterwork, with each room given a distinctive frieze pattern.
P.S. Apologies to anyone who was trying to nominate me for the Irish Blog Awards (see Number One from last Thursday, July 25th) and had problems because I gave the wrong email address: this has now been corrected , so please forgive my incompetence and try again. And thanks to all who have already nominated me.
Dear Robert, I nominated you using the e-mail you gave out earlier and the ³sent² lozenge delivered, so hope OK. I love your blog.
Penny
On 27/07/2013 09:22, “The Irish Aesthete” wrote:
> theirishaesthete posted: ” Two details of the plasterwork in the dining room > at Castle Coole, County Fermanagh. Constructed between 1789 and 1796 for Armar > Lowry-Corry, first Earl of Belmore the house is considered to be architect > James Wyatt’s Neoclassical masterpiece. For the” >
Dear Penny,
Thank you for that, much appreciated.
Hope all well and speak soon. Much love for now, R
Dear Robert
I am at present repairing the plasterwork at Garrick’s Villa in Hampton London.It was completed about the same time as the work here and from what I can work out it was by the Joseph Rose plaster company for Robert Adam.It has many similar features.It also has some beautiful plaques which I am cleaning.Although a grade 1 listed nobody seems to know {or apparently care} much about who carried out the work
Thanks for your post very informative .
Phil Bailey
Thank you for getting in touch and in turn inspiring me to look at your own site which has some most fascinating information (for other readers, see http://pbaileypllasterwork.blogspot.co.uk). I assume the building has fully recovered from the fire that broke out some years ago?
Dear Robert
The fire did indeed cause a great deal of damage but it seems it has taken a long time to get it sorted The so called “Adam’s Room” seems more a case of neglect.I was doing some lime plastering there and I was amazed that there did not seem to be any plans to repair it who knows why.I expressed an interest in repairing it and have been at it for about 3 weeks.It is a great source of technical information as it is about 1770s and a mixture of hand finished lime stucco and cast elements.I am not overly interested in the meaning of the architecture there is plenty of information about that. rather I enjoy the connection with the tradespeople and crafts techniques.We know what colour Henry Vlll ‘s pants were but don’t really know what made up
the fabric of peoples’ homes and lives
Thanks for your kind interest. if you would like to know more I will keep you informed as to my progress.And please keep posting I find it really interesting cheers Phil Bailey
Thank you for the further information: it sounds as if those responsible are fortunate to have you engaged in the project. And yes please, do keep me informed and perhaps at some future date I shall be able to see the building for myself.