The fading charm of Killarney furniture

Tourism as we know it today owes its origins to the Victorians. There had been widespread travel before the last century, of course, but not in any organised form, in which facilities were provided by resorts and towns to encourage visitors.

Thomas Cook organised his first tour in 1841 and found this so successful that he went into the business which still bears his name. Railways, which became widespread from the 1830s onwards, greatly facilitated this development. Ireland, as much as any other country, benefitted from the 19th century's burgeoning tourist industry. Killarney was probably the earliest venue here to draw large numbers of tourists, attracted by the town's proximity to lakes and mountains. In addition to travel, the Victorians were also interested in the concept of the picturesque as represented by nature. Inspired by earlier writers such as Rousseau, the romantic poets had promulgated the notion that the countryside embodied an uncorrupted ideal in contrast to urban degeneracy. The unspoiled beauty of Killarney and its surrounds became widely known thanks to the many painters and engravers who produced images of the area, drawing still more tourists into Kerry. The popularity of Killarney was greatly boosted by both the arrival of the railway in Co Kerry in 1854 and, seven years later, a visit to the town by Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort, accompanied by a number of their children, including the future Edward VII. During their stay in August 1861, the royal party were guests first of Lord Castlerosse (later the fourth Earl of Kenmare) at Killarney House and subsequently of local MP, Colonel Herbert at Muckross House. They were taken around the lakes, visited Ross Castle, lunched at Glena Cottage and generally behaved like any other tourists of the period. This included taking home a number of pieces of Killarney furniture, presented to them by Lord Castlerosse. A report in a local paper at the time gave details of the items, described as "a desk and cabinet of arbutus wood" and "a casket of bog oak".

These were the most common pieces of furniture manufactured and sold in Killarney during the 19th century and similar examples still come up regularly at auction today. Last November, for example, Hamilton Osborne King sold a mid-19th century davenport of arbutus wood, with boxwood and other marquetry inlay, for £7,000. Similarly, a pair of late 19th-century Killarney arbutus and marquetry bookstands were sold by Sotheby's in London last May for £920 sterling. Typically, both these lots rely for impact on their dense marquetry work. This would be used to depict certain familiar buildings in the Killarney area, such as Muckross Abbey, Ross Castle and Glena Cottage, plus emblems regarded as traditionally Irish - the shamrock, round towers, wolfhounds and harps. Similar motifs may be found on Belleek ware, which first began production in Co Fermanagh during the 1860s.

Killarney's principal sights and all the usual Irish symbols featured on the desk and cabinet presented in 1961 to Queen Victoria; it was estimated that more than 500,000 pieces of wood were involved in the creation of this item, demonstrating just how extraordinarily elaborate the craftsmanship could be.

The Queen's gifts were produced by one of the leading manufacturers of such furniture, J. Egan of Main Street, Killarney. On the same street during the 19th century could be found another major producer of inlaid goods, Jeremiah O'Connor. Egan and O'Connor both sent examples of their work to the Dublin Exhibition of 1853, which was also visited by Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort on an earlier trip to Ireland. In the capital, Arthur J. Jones, Son & Co was just one business among many engaged in similar work. The principal large pieces produced by all companies seem to have been either davenports or worktables; a mid-19th century octagonal example of the latter was sold at Sotheby's in London in May last year for £2,875 sterling.

Its surface is extensively inlaid with shamrocks and thistles alike, thereby revealing the Victorians' rather indiscriminate fondness for Celtic motifs. Much more common than large furnishings were small, more easily portable items such as work boxes, chess boards and bookends, which tended to be mass-produced to set formulae.

Just as 18th-century aristocrats would bring home portraits by Batoni or views of Venice by Canaletto to show they had made the trip to Italy, so their middle-class successors 100 years later could leave Ireland with a small souvenir in the shape of a piece of Killarney marquetry. The favoured wood was always arbutus or strawberry tree, which grew wild in the west of Ireland and produces a whitish, closegrained timber that yellows with age. However, almost as fashionable was the equally plentiful bog oak, which was frequently blackened to increase the appearance of antiquity. Patrick Beakey of Dublin, for example, made a table and chair from such oak for Daniel O'Connell; each item is heavily carved with symbols of Ireland, including round towers, wolfhounds and harps. Similarly intensive carving in oak appears to have been a feature of Arthur Jones of Dublin; he showed a suite of Irish furniture in bog yew at London's Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851. However, furniture of this kind was the target of some criticism, for its overly-elaborate decoration which obscured function. And before the 19th century closed, arbutus and bog oak furniture had largely ceased to be fashionable. A form which had been used with lightness of touch in the previous century was taken to extremes in an effort to satisfy the demands of customers.

Today, such pieces tend to look over-fussy and attention-seeking, which is one reason why, relative to the amount of craftsmanship involved, they make low sums at auction. Furniture of this kind does not easily find a place in most contemporary homes. It can appear unwieldy and, for all its vigour, rather pointless. Belonging very much to the period in which it was first produced, Killarney work is unlikely ever again to coincide with popular taste.