Staircases were perhaps the most intensively crafted works in any eighteenth-century interior. In high status houses, their friezes, tread-ends and balusters were commonly richly carved, and from the 1730s mahogany introduced a rich surface finish. However, the most elaborate staircases belong to the seventeenth century, when carvers in Britain and Ireland, and some parts of the continent, carved intricate open-work acanthus-leaf panels.
The only surviving Irish example of this kind of staircase is that from Eyrecourt, Co. Galway, now in packing cases in the Detroit Institute of Arts. The finest example is that from Cassiobury Park, now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. For an analysis of both, see Mechthild Baumeister and Andrew Tierney, ‘Piercing the surface: virtuoso wooden staircases from Cassiobury Park and Eyrecourt Castle’. In Enriching Architecture: Craft and its conservation in Anglo-Irish building production, 1660–1760, edited by Christine Casey and Melanie Hayes, 59–99. UCL Press, 2023.
In the early eighteenth century, rich ornamental carving remained an important component of staircases in large houses, but the great openwork carved panels disappeared. Instead enrichment was concentrated on newel posts and balusters, the shafts of which commonly assumed the form of fluted or twisted columns, and in acanthus-leaf friezes below the landings. To see salvaged examples of these details, see Peter Pearson’s chapter ‘Fragments of eighteenth-century craftsmanship: the Pearson collection’. In Enriching Architecture: Craft and its conservation in Anglo-Irish building production, 1660–1760, edited by Christine Casey and Melanie Hayes, 100–137. UCL Press, 2023.
One of the finest staircases of this type is that at Damer House, Co. Tipperary, the subject of a CRAFTVALUE blog post in December 2021. Another is in the Old Library of Trinity College Dublin. One of the distinctive features of early eighteenth-century staircases is the use of the open string whereby the step is made visible in the outer part of the staircase by continuing the nosing around to the side and finishing the step with a tread end. The joiners attached the balusters to the steps via dovetail joints that were cleverly hidden behind the nosing, as seen in the animation below.
The introduction of mahogany into staircase construction from the 1730s saw a further reduction in carving as the hardwood was prized for its fine grained surface texture which was shown off with a high polish. In the video below, timber conservation specialist Sven Habermann discusses the great mahogany staircase at Russborough, Co. Wicklow, dating to c. 1745.
The faux-cantilever
The digital image below shows the sleight-of-hand employed by Irish joiners to give the impression that staircases of the Russborough type were cantilevered out from the wall. In fact, a series of carriage beams were hidden inside cleverly elongated hollow steps. This technique was had already been employed by craftsmen in the circle of Richard Castle at No. 85 Stephen’s Green (1738) and Tyrone House (c.1740). For further analysis, see Andrew Tierney’s chapter ‘A glorious ascent: staircase design, construction and craft in the circle of Richard Castle’ in Enriching Architecture (2023), which compares the evolution of some key features in each country.
True timber cantilevers are rare, but several examples can be found in the work of William Thornton in Yorkshire. The finest of these is that at Beningbrough Hall, not far from York, dating to 1716, which has the L-shaped step that is so distinctive a feature of his staircases.
The following digital renders show the various components that make up the stair, from the iron re-enforced oak baulks that cantilever from the wall, the wainscoted casing of the steps, the oak parquetry of treads, and the delicate open strapwork panels that imitate contemporary ironwork.
The craftsmen introduced a clever sleight-of-hand by allowing the wall to project an extra foot into the room under the staircase, thereby reducing the extent of the cantilever. This disparity in the width of the steps above and below the staircase is not visible to anyone using the staircase, as it is not possible to view both at the same time. It was only discovered by conducting a measured survey. The weight of the cantilevered steps was further reduced by executing the ‘iron’ baluster panels in oak. While iron stair rails had become fashionable due to the influence French ironworker Jean Tijou at the English court, the builder of Beningbrough, William Thornton, was an accomplished joiner by trade, and likely more comfortable overseeing the work in a material with which he was familiar. For other sources used to create this model, see the footnote at the bottom of the page.
One of the most beautiful elements of the eighteenth-century staircase is the ramp, whereby the rail must jump to meet the double step that occurs by virtue of a half or quarter turn. In Ireland the swan-neck ramp was the most common form until the 1730s during which time the concave ramp began to take over. The latter appears in England as early as the mid seventeenth century when the rails were extremely bulky, but as decades past they became more elegant and slender. For further analysis, see Andrew Tierney’s Andrew Tierney, ‘A glorious ascent: staircase design, construction and craft in the circle of Richard Castle’ in Enriching Architecture: Craft and its conservation in Anglo-Irish building production, 1660–1760, edited by Christine Casey and Melanie Hayes, 316–353. UCL Press, 2023.
- CRAFTVALUE is grateful to Richard Hewlings who gave a paper on William Thornton at our 2022 conference Artisans and Architects: 1660-1760 in Trinity College Dublin, which included a broad survey of his distinctive staircases. This model was produced with the kind assistance and insights of Matthew Constantine and Alexa Buffey of the National Trust at Beningbrough who allowed us to examine the staircase on our visits in June 2022 and July 2023, and provided useful photographic evidence of hidden parts of the staircase. They also passed on two key additional sources: the 1978 cross-section of the step in the National Trust archives by conservation architect Martin Stancliffe showing the baulk and iron reinforcement, and the article by Ivan Hall in the York Georgian Society Annual Report, 33-41, which includes the dimensions of the carriage beam and the relationship between the baulks and brick wall. We are also grateful for additional advice from Martin Stancliffe and Sam Price. Any errors in the model are entirely CRAFTVALUE’s own. ↩︎