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Enriching Architecture

Craft and Its Conservation in Anglo-Irish building production, 1660–1760

Distributed for UCL Press

Enriching Architecture

Craft and Its Conservation in Anglo-Irish building production, 1660–1760

An argument for taking the craft work of surface enrichment of buildings more seriously in architectural history.
 
Architectural history has tended to marginalize the many types of refinement and enrichment of surfaces in stone, wood, and plaster that were fundamental aspects of early modern architecture. Enriching Architecture aims to retrieve and rehabilitate surface achievement as a vital element of early modern buildings in Britain and Ireland, arguing for the historical legitimacy of creative craft skill as a primary agent in architectural production. 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. The book explores broad themes of surface treatment such as wainscot, rustication, plasterwork, and staircase embellishment, along with chapters focused on virtuoso buildings and set pieces that illuminate these themes.

396 pages | 247 color plates | 6.14 x 9.21 | © 2023

Architecture: History of Architecture


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Table of Contents

List of figuresList of contributorsList of abbreviationsForewordGlenn AdamsonAcknowledgments Introduction:
Enriching architecture: craft
and its conservation in Anglo-Irish architectural production, 1660–1760Christine Casey and Melanie Hayes

Part 1: Loss and retrieval1 ’Onslow Palace’: new evidence
of eighteenth-century craft technique at Clandon ParkSophie Chessum2 Piercing the surface:
virtuoso wooden staircases from Cassiobury Park and Eyrecourt CastleMechthild
Baumeister and Andrew Tierney3 Fragments of
eighteenth-century craftsmanship: the Pearson collectionPeter Pearson4 Experiments with historic
light in Kensington Palace’s early eighteenth-century interiorsLee Prosser5 Retrieving craft practice on
the early eighteenth-century building siteMelanie Hayes6 Conserving craft in eighteenth-century
buildings: the role of the conservation architect Tony Barton

Part 2: Design and making7  The geometry of rustication:
an eighteenth-century case studyEdward McParland 8 The rough and the smooth:
stone use in Dublin 1720–60Patrick Wyse Jackson and Louise Caulfield9 Drawing out a surface in lime
and hairJenny Saunt10 ‘Agreeable to live in’: the
wainscoted interior in eighteenth-century Britain and IrelandChristine Casey11 A glorious ascent: staircase
design, construction and craft in the circle of Richard Castle Andrew Tierney

Index

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