Plasterwork and furniture
Along with the architectural drawings, there are beautifully detailed drawings of the design of the interiors of Leinster House. The elaborate plasterwork and furniture combined with the architecture must have resulted in an impressive spectacle. The Lafranchini brothers, of Swiss origin, have been credited with the introduction of the human figure into plasterwork and had a profound influence on native Irish stuccodores after their arrival in Ireland to work for the Earl of Kildare's father at Carton House in 1739.
These drawings, attributed to Filippo Lafranchini are the only known drawings by either brother for an Irish building, despite the fact that they are credited with having worked on 15 houses over a 40 year period in Ireland.
Designs for furniture for an Irish eighteenth-century domestic building are extremely rare. Dated to circa 1760 on stylistic grounds, these two drawings, with two others in the Guinness Collection, form the largest group of such designs believed to survive.
The name of the artist of these drawings is not known. One depicts a mirror, and one depicts a girandole. These drawings give an idea of the grandeur of the furniture in Leinster House in the eighteenth century.