Welcome to the CRAFTVALUE online digital exhibition. This is intended as a showcase of four years of research into eighteenth-century craftsmanship funded by the Irish Research Council. The exhibition is divided into STONE, WOOD and PLASTER, and visitors can navigate the exhibition according to these subjects, as well as by following the links placed throughout which connect to supporting material elsewhere on the website and to some of the project’s recently published research.

The aim of CRAFTVALUE is to increase awareness of the collaborative labour and tacit knowledge that underpins craftsmanship of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Britain and Ireland. One of the challenges of this work has been finding effective ways to bring craft achievement out of the shadows and see it with new eyes. The exhibition features a series of interviews with craft practitioners as well as photographs, animations and 3D models of key examples of high quality work from across the two countries.

Written content by Christine Casey, Melanie Hayes, and Andrew Tierney. Photogrammetry, digital models and animations by Andrew Tierney. Laser scan of Russborough by Rebecca O’Reilly.

Acknowledgements

CRAFTVALUE would like to acknowledge the assistance of the Office of Public Works, The National Trust, Sophie Chessum, Stephen Castle, Matthew Constantine, Alexa Buffey, Kevina Dunne, David Hartley, Gunther Wolters, Prof. Patrick Wyse Jackson, Dr Louise Caulfield, Sven Habermann, George O’Malley, Russborough House, Pauline Swords, Mercedes Gonzales, Rebecca O’Reilly, Sazerac Company, Inc., Nick Laracuente, Christopher Kitchin, the Irish Architectural Archive, David Griffin, John O’Connell, Roger Hill, Christopher Ridgway and the Castle Howard Estate, the Governor & Co. of the Bank of Ireland, John McGrath, the Provost, Estates and Facilities, and Manuscripts and Archives, Trinity College Dublin.