The staid and proper architecture of the early to mid-18th century began to dissolve between 1750 and 1770. A new generation of housebuilders reacted against their parents' taste in interior decoration and devoted themselves to an ever increasing interest in frivolity.
The scented, decorative and informal world of Paris and Madame de Pompadour spread across the British Isles and broke down the constraints of polite society. Particularly in Ireland, this found a ready home. Freeing itself from conventions, this French-inspired rococo style found inspiration in things natural and exotic - bouquets, shells and things oriental. Wealth and prosperity were celebrated as never before, with rooms decked out with stucco bunting, gilded bouquets - there was a permanently festive spirit.
Although it was a short-lived style, the rococo was symptomatic of great changes. Its spontaneity and naturalism was in tune with the Enlightenment, the writings of Diderot and of Edmund Burke. Improved transport coupled with a growing affluent Irish population led to larger social gatherings known as assemblies.
These gradually did away with the old hierarchy of apartment rooms and state beds of the Neo Palladian era. Large double doors linked a string of reception rooms - several drawingrooms, diningrooms and even small coffee rooms - all of whose decoration became increasingly extravagant. Variety and diversity were the requirements. Irish rococo fulfilled these, as it seemed to know no bounds.
Vigorous ceiling stuccowork depicting masks, leaves, interlocking "c scrolls" and occasional putti - these are the surviving hallmarks of Irish rococo decoration. These stucco confections were balanced by walls hung with delicately patterned, palecoloured silk damasks, imported Chinese painted wallpapers and elaborate watergilded frames surrounding plates of mirror glass.
Sumptuously upholstered seats of suggestive curvaceous form highlighted a new level of luxury. Cabinetmakers supplied a growing diversity in furnishings for a market hungry for novelty: these included card and breakfast tables, tea boards and fire screens. Goods from the East poured into the British Isles, including silks, porcelains, lacquered screens and fans.
Intimacy became all important: luminaries of Irish life such as Mrs Delany and Lady Louisa Connolly devoted enormous energy to creating charming closets and dressingrooms, which were decorated in the height of fashion; being servantless, privacy could be fully experienced.
A market that blossomed in Dublin was the wallpaper trade, with numerous suppliers trading in the 1760s. Generally, papers imitated textiles, velvets, damasks, chintzes or even needlework. Specialist shops sold sheets of printed paper frames, garlands and ornaments, which could be cut out and used as decoupage decoration for print rooms. The surviving one at Castletown of circa 1765 is a veritable scrapbook of the Connollys artistic taste and cultural life.
Fabrics assumed a greater role in decoration as levels of comfort increased. In addition to damasks and worsteds, painted silks, taffetas and chintzes became more common. Monochrome printed chintzes - toiles - were first printed in Ireland in 1752, before the fashion spread across Europe. Their bucolic images of country life, garlands of flowers and bright colours perfectly illustrate the spirit of time.
Festoon blinds, a feature of the earlier 18th century, developed into looser reef curtains which were more voluminous, though they were generally unlined. Hanging from carved and gilded pelmets, they had long tails which framed the windows.
