While 18th century Irish silver is popular among collectors, opportunities to study domestic items in detail are relatively few. However, the National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks, Dublin, has a very substantial collection of such work on display in a suite of first-floor rooms.
Most of the earliest pieces on show, from the De Burgo O'Malley chalice of 1494 onwards, tend to be ecclesiastical. Political and social circumstances in Ireland from this period until the close of the 17th century were too unsettled for too much silver to either be produced or survive successive upheavals.
Therefore, domestic ware tends only to be found in any quantity from around 1680 onwards, when it has the typical characteristics of baroque decoration. When used by silversmiths, these included strong, and even occasionally coarse, representation of natural objects, such as flowers, fruits and wildlife in raised relief.
Among the most striking examples of such work to be found in the National Museum are two porringers, lidded vessels used to contain foods such as soup or porridge, the earlier of which dates between 1674 and 1680, the other being some 20 years later. Both are elaborately chased with vegetal ornamentation of a kind which was not seen again until the Victorian period.
Also fascinating to examine is a silver-mounted cup made from an ostrich egg, for which a cover was also made. This piece shows the baroque interest in the odd and quirky.
From the beginning of the 18th century and for several decades after, fashionable taste veered towards simpler decoration in which geometrical forms - the rectangle, hexagon and octagon - were all much used. However, it is a measure of the consistent conservatism of the Irish that older styles remained popular here for some years beyond the time when they had dropped out of favour in other countries; this applies not just to the baroque but equally to rococo and neo-classicism.
Rococo ornamentation became wildly popular in Ireland more than a decade after it had been adopted on the other side of the Irish Sea. The asymmetrical and sinuous forms shown in silver mimic those found in other artefacts of the same period; a covered soup tureen made by Thomas Walker in Dublin in 1751, for example, rests on four legs with lions' heads and claw-and-ball feet just as Irish tables do.
Other rococo pieces in the National Museum's show include a heavily pierced and chased bread basket made by Dublin silversmith Robert Calderwood in 1745 and a pair of wine coasters with pierced sides depicting cupids harvesting grapes from vines. Delightful as the latter are, they must have been something of an anachronism even when first produced by Charles Townsend in 1775 because by this date neo-classicism had firmly established itself as the predominant form.
In the case next to these wine coasters is a pair of chastely refined candlesticks made 15 years earlier in 1760m probably by James Warren, and representing a pair of fluted Corinthian columns.
In contrast to the abundant usage of natural motifs found in rococo work - everything from shells to flowers - neo-classicism restricted itself to just a handful of stylistic details, such as the foliage swags seen engraved around the side of an oval dish ring made in Dublin in 1792 by Thomas Jones.
Neo-classicism would reign supreme as the preferred form of decoration until well into the 19th century, as can once more be seem not just in silverware but in furniture and house design.
One of the more helpful aspects of the National Museum's display is that in addition to silver, it features examples of porcelain to demonstrate how the two shared certain characteristics, such as a Worcester coffee pot of circa 1765 in the rococo section and some pieces of Josiah Wedgewood's work in that devoted to neo-classical work.
For anyone who wishes to learn more about 18th century domestic silver, there are cases devoted specifically to different household articles, from team and coffee pots to ladles, from sugar bowls - the three-legged variety being almost exclusive to Ireland - to wine labels.
Other parts of the exhibition focus on regional silver produced not just in such important centres as Cork and Limerick, but in Galway, Kinsale, Waterford and Youghal.
Finally, the techniques involved mining and refining silver are also examined, together with the craftsmanship involved in producing work of the finest quality. In fact, it is likely that visitors leaving the exhibition will feel a great sense of regret that there is another field of expertise which was once widely practised in Ireland but has now all but vanished.
