The historian and writer
Adrian Tinniswood captures the essence of the book when in the
Critic, he declares that it is "A box of geeky delights, certainly, but also a fabulous (one might even say indispensable) source for the scholarly study of the Irish country house . . ." He also alludes to the book's "excellent glossary, that essential component of published inventories", a view endorsed by Michael Hall in his review in the
Times Literary Supplement. Robert O'Byrne, the historian of Irish architecture and the decorative arts, reminds us in his review "Listed buildings" in
Apollo that household inventories, Irish or otherwise, vary in what they include and what they omit. Such omissions hint at their "fascination and fallibility", he ventures, and goes on to say: "When it comes to country house contents, they provide us with a great deal of information, but rarely all of it". Nevertheless, across the inventories transcribed in the book, spanning some 120 years, he reassures us that "it is possible to see how the decoration and design of affluent Irish households changed". Writing in
Country Life, Kate Green sees historic household inventories that record the contents of rooms as "an essential documentary tool for understanding the use and appearance of houses in the distant past", and, for the benefit of those "with a serious interest in Irish Georgian houses", sees
Great Irish Households as "an essential work of reference". The book's usefulness to researchers is likewise acknowledged by James Rothwell, National Curator, Decorative Arts,
National Trust, who avers: "[This] will be an invaluable and rich source of information for scholars and I know I will be using it on a regular basis." These views are shared by Christopher Ridgway in the
Journal of the History of Collections when he writes: "[T]his collection is a cornucopia of information, and while its primary audience will be scholars and curators, there is plenty to be gleaned from the listings for anyone interested in historic interiors". 'One of the things that make this volume incredibly useful,' asserts David Fleming in
Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies, 'is the detailed, thematic index that draws each object together, allowing for comparison across the houses.' Marie Boran praises the general index in her review in
Eighteenth-Century Ireland; "a mammoth undertaking," she dubs it, "as it includes an exhaustively detailed index to individual types of items within the inventories". Whereas the architectural historian
Peter Pearson, reviewing the book for the
Irish Arts Review, admires the book, "a beautiful production — elegantly laid out, printed and bound into a neat volume, with a fine dust jacket", he wishes there was more information given about what became of the items listed. "Where are these objects now? Have any survived at all? Only occasionally are we told." Drawing our attention to the fashion for mahogany in his review in the
Furniture History Society Newsletter,
Simon Swynfen Jervis writes: "[M]ahogany furniture occupies four columns of
Great Irish Households' comprehensive, dense and detailed index, but this very emphasis serves to confirm the stock observation that this wood was particularly popular in well-to-do Irish houses."
Tom Jaine, writing in
Petits Propos Culinaires, examines the kitchens and sculleries with especial delight. "There is so much information that recitation here would be exhausting, but for sheer extravagance, exuberance and breath-catching detail, the domestic and service sections of the Carton House inventory from 1818 take some beating . . ." In her article about the book in the
Irish Times, Bernice Harrison recognizes the usefulness of the transcribed inventories for artistic directors working on historical films. "It's not hard to see how a set designer on a film set in a grand 18th-century house would pore over the details in the book to find out how many paintings to put in the hall, whether there should be a rug on the floor and might it really be made of velvet . . . " Nigel Hankin captures the essence of the book when he writes in the
Georgian: "[T]his book gives a tantalising glimpse into the interiors of the home of the wealthy in Ireland in the period and provides an invaluable resource for serious study of Irish Georgian houses". Admiring the book's success in achieving its overall aim, William Derham, curator at Dublin Castle, foresees that it "will be the go-to source book on material culture in the great Irish house, above and below stairs, for many years to come". ==See also==