The most important pieces of furniture to go on public display in this country for many years have recently been acquired with the assistance of the Friends of the National Collections of Ireland. They are a pair of George III ormolu-mounted satinwood amaraninth inlaid corner cabinets, or encoignures, by Thomas Chippendale the Younger. As well as being of outstanding craftsmanship and beauty they are of historic interest. They were commissioned from Chippendale by the 2nd Duke of Leinster in 1775-80 for display in his Dublin townhouse, Leinster House (now the seat of the Oireachtas, the national parliament). On the sale of the house to the (Royal) Dublin Society in 1815 they went to another of the duke’s homes, Carton House, County Kildare, where they remained for the next 150 years.
The cabinets were recently bought at auction in London by the Castletown Foundation and the Office of Public Works with the aid of a grant of €17,323 from the Friends of the National Collections of Ireland, and they can now be admired in Castletown House, Celbridge, County Kildare.
