Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Draughtsman-designer. Samuel Chearnley was a son of Samuel Chearnley and younger brother of ANTHONY CHEARNLEY. ANTHONY CHEARNLEY. (1) He became a protégé of Sir Lawrence Parsons of Birr, Co. Offaly, where he died in 1746, aged only 29. Between October 1745 and May 1746 he produced a manuscript set of designs for garden buildings, which he entitled 'Miscelanea Structura Curiosa'. Most of the designs were his own, though five were conceived by Parsons and merely drawn up by him.(2) The manuscript, which was bound in the 19th century, is still at Birr Castle.(3) A design for a temple 'according to the theatre of Marcellus' signed 'Samuel Chearnley delin.' is among a collection of drawings for garden buildings belonging to the Burgh family at Oldtown, Co. Meath, and it is possible that other drawings in this collection are also by him.(4) An elevation of a gateway bearing the Powerscourt arms, which is in a volume of drawings from Powerscourt on loan to the Irish Architectural Archive, has been attributed to Chearnley on stylistic grounds.(5)



References



(1) LGI 1904, 90.
(2) See Christine Casey, 'Miscelanea Structura Curiosa', Irish Arts Review Yearbook 1990-1991, 85-91, for a full account of these designs.
(3) Photographs of all the designs and some loose drawings are in the IAA, which also holds a typescript copy of 'an undergraduate essay' on Chearnley by Benedict Bull, 1995, which includes a catalogue of all the drawings (Acc 2003/69).
(4) Photographs in IAA.
(5) IAA, Powerscourt Albums (89/62), 1/8/1; reproduced in Griffin & Lincoln, Drawings from the Irish Architectural Archive (Dublin, 1993), 31 (No. 4c).


1 work entries listed in chronological order for CHEARNLEY, SAMUEL


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Building: CO. WICKLOW, POWERSCOURT
Date: 1745ca?
Nature: Design for gates, attr. to SC.
Refs: IAA, Powerscourt Albums (89/62), 1/8/1; reproduced in Griffin & Lincoln, Drawings from the Irish Architectural Archive (Dublin, 1993), 31 (No. 4c).

Author Title Date Details
Chearnley, Samuel 'Miscelanea Structura Curiosa' 1745-1746 MS set of designs executed 1745-6 in collection of Earl of Rosse, Birr Castle; facsimile edition, edited by William Laffan, published Churchill House, Press, Tralee, 2005.