Large Antique Carved Wooden Mantelpiece from Woodstock House

The curved and fluted consoles support a fluted barrel frieze with carved centre plaque. The outside panels carved with descending husks. Above the dentil shelf are chains of bellflowers with plain shields.

Very large in scale, exquisitely carved in oak and retaining its original finish. During the 20th century it was removed from Woodstock House, Co.Kilkenny and installed in a nearby house until this year.

Circa 1840

Woodstock House

Woodstock House was built in 1745-47 for Sir William Fownes by the architect Francis Bindon. It has a rusticated front facade and is unusual in being built around a small central court. The decorative emphasis of the house was focused upon the front facade. In 1804-06 flanking wings were added to designs by William Robertson. The service yards either side were added at the same time. Both the main house and the wings were built of stone with brick lining inside. The basement vaulting was, unusually, also of brick. Only parts of the east and west walls of the centre block and parts of the wings had no internal brick lining. Like many early 18th century Irish country houses, the decorative emphasis of the building was focused upon the front facade. The five bay garden frontage is much plainer though a very decorative iron staircase was added in the 1850’s by Richard Turner, the famous iron master. The main house was burnt in 1922 after the building had been occupied by ‘Black and Tan’ troops. The east wing apparently was not burnt and remained occupied for some years subsequently. The house is now in an unstable condition,having been in a ruinous state for approximately eighty years. Due to its constant exposure to weathering there has been considerable decay of the fabric and undermining of the structural stability of parts of the building. The central bay of the front facade collapsed in March 2001 during a storm which has left the building now even more unstable and extremely dangerous. (Works are now under way to protect the building from further deterioration).