1750s – Marino House, Clontarf, Co. Dublin

The home of James Caulfeild, 1st Earl of Charlemont, who was responsible for hiring William Chambers to design the nearby Casino on the estate. Lord Charlemont was well known for his love of Classical art and culture and spent nine years on the Grand Tour in Italy, Greece, Turkey and Egypt. He returned to Dublin and employed the Scottish architect Sir William Chambers to remodel some rooms within his main residence Marino House, to design his town house Charlemont House and the unique Neo-Classical garden pavilion building, the Casino at Marino. While on his travels, Caulfeild became friends with Giovanni Piransi, who dedicated the first four-volume edition of Antichitá Romane to his Irish friend, ‘Regni Hiberniae Patricio’ in 1756. Other architects and artists were commisioned to design works of art for the estate and house: Johann Heinrich Müntz produced designs for the ‘Egyptian’ Room in 1762; and Giovanni Cipriani designed statues of Apollo, Venus, Bacchus and Ceres in 1768.

The house was demolished in the 1920s, with the estate broken up and developed. The Casino is now in State ownership and a National Monument.