Green Drawing Room
Date: 23 Jul 2008
Green Drawing Room
The Green Drawing Room was the main reception room or saloon on the ground floor. Visitors could enter from both the Entrance Hall and the garden front. Like the other state rooms it was extensively remodelled between 1764 and 1768. Originally it was panelled in oak much of which survives under the present silk. The influence of the published designs of Serlio and the leading British architect Isaac Ware can be seen in the neo-classical ceilings, door cases and chimney pieces. The Greek key pattern in the plasterwork is repeated in the frames of the pier glasses, the pier tables, and the fireplace. The walls were first lined with a pale green silk damask in the 1760s. Fragments of this silk, which was replaced by a dark green mid nineteenth century silk, survived and the present silk was woven as a direct colour match in 1985 by Prelle et Cie in Lyon , France.
Paintings
William Conolly by Charles Jervas (1675-1739). Shows Speaker Conolly
with mace of office.
Katherine Conolly, also by Jervas, pictured with her niece, Molly
Burton.
General de Ginkel 1st Earl of Athlone , by Jervas. Ginkel was a hero of the Williamite wars, 1689-91.* Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford and his secretary. After Van Dyck. The portrait came to Castletown in 1752 with Lady Anne Conolly nee Wentworth. Strafford had been Lord Lieutenant of Ireland under Charles I.*
Furniture
An Irish George II bookcase, with glazed front. Made c.1740 for
Castletown.
Pair of original George III giltwood mirrors.
Pair of George III style giltwood tables with Greek key pattern, Modern copies of Castletown originals.
Fine Suite of Irish George III mahogany seat furniture upholstered in French floral tapestry, originally from Headfort Co. Meath.
A George III decorative musical clock, made by Charles Clay of London.
Formerly stood in the hall at Castletown.
Carpet
Louis Philippe Aubusson carpet, with floral and foliate sprays on an ivory ground.
