The central panel of the Portland stone chimney piece in the entrance hall at Kilshannig, County Cork. On either side of a mask flow garlands of flowers and fruit carved with such precision and depth that they look as though ready to drop to the floor (were they not secured by hooks at either end of the panel). Evidently whoever was responsible for this exquisitely assured work liaised with stuccadore Filippo Lafranchini, since the chimney piece decoration echoes the latter’s ceilings throughout the house’s main rooms. (For more on Kilshannig’s plasterwork, see Exuberance, May 18th 2015).