- Toby Barnard is one of the pre-eminent historians of
eighteenth-century Ireland- Inventories, most of them published here for
the first time, are presented in a highly readable layout- Extensive
index makes the goods and chattels listed in the inventories easily
accessible- Full glossary is linked to the index- Companion volume to
Noble Households: Eighteenth-Century Inventories of Great English
HousesThe value of inventories in charting how houses were arranged,
furnished and used is now widely appreciated. Typically, the listings
and valuations were occasioned by the death of an owner and the
consequent need to deal with testamentary dispositions. That was not
always so. The inventory for Castlecomer House, Co. Kilkenny, for
example, was drawn up to make a claim following the house's devastation
in the 1798 uprising. Mostly hitherto unpublished, the inventories
chosen give new-found insights into the lifestyle and taste of some of
the foremost families of the day. A comprehensive index facilitates
access to the myriad items within the inventories, while the books
listed at three of the houses are tentatively identified in separate
appendices. A foreword, together with preambles to the inventories, sets
the households in their historical context. The book will appeal to
historians of interiors, patronage, collecting and material culture, as
well as to scholars, curators, collectors, creative designers, film
directors, bibliographers, lexicographers and historical novelists.
