This book was sparked by Alec Cobbe’s
discovery in the family attic of a drawing by architect James
Gibbs (1682–1754). It was a proposal for Newbridge, Co.
Dublin, the house built c. 1747 by Charles Cobbe, Archbishop
of Dublin, who turns out to have known Gibbs when a young man.
He later commissioned Gibbs to design the house which has been
the home of the Cobbe collection since the 18th century. By the
1740s, Gibbs, the creator of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, was considered
the most influential architect in the whole of the English-speaking
world, although he seems not to have been in demand in Ireland.
Until now, no other executed Irish work by him was known to exist.
This detailed and richly illustrated book shows that almost every
feature of Newbridge, inside and out, sprang from Gibbs’s
designs, many of which are published here for the first time.
92 pages, 148 full
colour illustrations
published in association with the Irish
Georgian Society.
