settled in Dublin and in counties Limerick and Kerry in the autumn of 1709.4 An old jingle tells of the group’s arrival: In the year of seventeen hundred and nine In came the brass-coloured Palatine From the ancient banks of the Swabian Rhine 5
A
(Figure 3) Secretary bookcase, Irish, c1735. Walnut and marquetry. Whereabouts unknown; photograph by courtesy of the Glin Archive.
25 I A DA Y E A R B O O K 2 0 0 9 - 2 0 1 0
ccording to Vivien Hick, who has done extensive research on the Kirchoffers and other Palatines in Ireland, Franz Ludwig Kirchoffer was a joiner by trade and appeared in a 1715 list for payment of subsistence as Francis ‘Kirkhover.’6 He was recorded in Dublin in 1720 using the same spelling. Hick points out that we do not know whether he had a family with him because family members are not listed in 1715 or 1720. However, it appears that he had at least one son, John, who could well be the maker of the Art Institute cabinet. According to Hick, John was recorded as a cabinetmaker leasing a warehouse and sheds in Great Marlborough Street, Dublin, in 1736 from the merchant George Felster for himself, his wife Mary, and Mary’s sister Catherine Kindt. The Felsters were leading Dublin upholders, auctioneers, and dealers in furniture, porcelain, paintings, silks, textiles, and wine, among other things.7 The connection between these three families of German origin, the Kirchoffers, Kindts, and Felsters, was typical of many immigrant families who frequently intermarried. Further references to Kirchoffers have been found by Hick, including Francis Kirchoffer (1747-1827), the son of another John Kirchoffer (1711-1753) and Elizabeth Dunn.
Francis was a cabinetmaker on Henry Street and Denmark Street in Dublin.8 He appears to have continued John Kirchoffer’s unusual practice of signing furniture, for his name appears on the bottom board of a mahogany pedestal desk in the collection of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.9 Sir Hugh Roberts, Director of the Royal Collection and Surveyor of the Queen’s Works of Art, discovered an extensive series of bills from Francis and John Kirchoffer made out to James Alexander (1730-1802), later first Earl of Caledon, but it is unclear which John Kirchoffer this is.10 The earliest bill, covering November 1777 to June 1778, totals £222 2s. 7d. and appears to relate to furniture for a house in Saint Stephen’s Green, Dublin. The second account is from Francis only and refers to a bill delivered in August 1783 to Alexander at Caledon in county Tyrone totalling £294 3s. 11d. A letter from Francis dated August 3, 1784, mentions additional furniture and upholstery sent to Caledon and some to Merrion Square, Dublin. Two accounts from Hall Kirchoffer (recorded as the son of John Kirchoffer),11 dated July 1789 and December 1792, complete the series of bills. Hall must have run an extensive cabinetmaking business, for, like Francis, he served as both warden (1770-1771) and master (1780-1781) of the Joiners’ Guild.12 Hall’s trade label inscribed ‘Kirchoffer/CABINET MAKER/to the Right Hon’ble/His Majesty’s Board of Works,/62 Henry Street/DUBLIN’ appears on a mahogany bookcase in a private collection in Ireland. W hen Hall’s son Francis Kirchoffer II went bankrupt in 1817, his stock