C O N T E X T 1 2 5 : J U LY 2 0 1 2 37 processes of repair and treatment of timber are explained. The explanation of methods of repair and treatment covers structural repairs, preservative pre-treatments, adhesives fillers and fastenings, and upgrading historic buildings to meet modern standards. Repair and treatment are explained comprehensively, with numerous images and technical drawings. With regard to timber decay, insects and fungi, the volume deals with the mythology surrounding some decay agents and their treatment. Summary My overriding impression of this series is that it is comprehensive, well set out and easy to follow, and it should be of interest both to all involved in the repair and maintenance of historic buildings, and to the casual reader. Each volume stands alone or as part of a set. This represents a substantial body of work in the field of building conservation that is unlikely to be repeated in the near future. The tables and technical drawings are clear, and some of the photographs included are remarkable. The amount of information within each volume is staggering and must represent the nearest thing to a one-stop-shop for historic building practitioners. The one possible consideration that a number of practitioners have raised with me is that in an increasingly interactive age the series is not available online from English Heritage as an interactive resource. I can not comment on this. I will say that the pleasure of handling these beautifully illustrated volumes can not be replicated on a computer screen, and I would be happy to make room for the series on my bookshelf as an invaluable resource. Or even as a casual read on my coffee table, if I had one. Julian Bagg is a director of Castle House Heritage Consulting and coordinator of the IHBC technical panel. Irish delight Decorative Plasterwork in Ireland and Europe: ornament and the early modern interior Christine Casey and Conor Lucey (eds), Four Courts Press, 2012, 266 pages, 100+ b&w and 32 colour illustrations, ISBN 978 1 84682 321 3, £45 This is a richly rewarding and lavishly illustrated collection of essays which draws on current research to place the distinctive decorative plasterwork of 18th-century Ireland in a European context. Its origins were in a conference held in Dublin in 2010: it brings together contributions from both scholars and practitioners. The purpose of the conference, we are told in an informative introduction by Conor Lucey, was to explore the shared decorative language of plasterwork across Europe in the period; to examine the Irish stuccoed interior in that context; and to reflect on the current state of scholarship within the field. The publication succeeds admirably in all three aims. The pervading theme is the remarkable dominance of the migrant stucco workshops and sculptors from the Alpine region of Italy and Switzerland. By the 18th century they had conquered the whole of Europe – not just Ireland, Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and the Czech Republic, as described by individual chapters in this volume, but Sweden, Norway and Russia as well. Even in the 16th century, as Claire Gapper reminds us in her paper on the period between 1550 and 1650, there was an Italian presence of some importance in England in the person of Nicholas Bellin at Nonsuch. This was an isolated interlude, however, and if anything it was Irish plasterers who were more prominent in London at that period. From 1554, the London Plasterers Company elected one Englishman and one Irishman to serve as wardens each year, and from 1555 to 1610 the Royal Master Plasterer was Irish. Evidently the Irish delight in the art was formed at an early age. Gapper’s excellent summary acts as an introduction to the sumptuous plasterwork of the 18th century, which is the focus of the other essays on specific areas and workshops throughout Europe. There can be no doubting the skill and invention of the craftsmen who designed and executed such breathtaking works of art. But after a while the surfeit of fanciful Rococo decoration becomes almost indigestible and it is with a degree of relief that one turns to the more practical chapters. There is an excellent paper by Christine Casey on the financial rewards enjoyed by the Italian stuccadores in Ireland and in England. It uses documentary sources creatively to demonstrate their engagement with middle-class cultural life and their involvement with moneylending which, in at least one case, was used to promote opera. In another pioneering paper, Lucey provides a tentative statistical analysis on the prevalence of decorative plaster ceilings in terraced house developments in London, Bath, Edinburgh and Bristol. He concludes that they were far more numerous in Dublin, as were the ‘ornament-plasterers’ cited in contemporary directories. He offers a number of interesting observations on the role played by plasterers as speculative building developers and the importance of stuccoed decoration in the success of their enterprises where, again, Dublin was in advance of other cities in mainland Britain. Of particular interest to readers of Context will be the chapter by Ian Constantinides on the interplay between technology and decorative style, based on his profound practical experience as a building conservator and laced with his characteristically forthright comments on aesthetics. The complementary chapter by Richard Ireland, another experienced practitioner, provides a succinct primer on materials and methods, before stressing the importance of investigation to the work of the conservator and the benefits of paint removal in the right circumstances. It is so lucidly written that one almost
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