Antique French Giltwood Canape' Settee Sofa from Humewood Castle c1870

Humewood Castle

Humewood Castle is a 32,668 square feet 3,035.0 m2 Gothic-fantasy mansion built in 1870 in 427 acres of parkland at Kiltegan, County Wicklow. The mansion was originally built as a private residence of the Hume family. It is currently owned by American billionaire John C. Malone.
 
Built of granite, the three-story main building is flanked by a tall, round turreted tower at one end and a more angular tower at the other. The ground floor consists of a drawing room, dining room, salon and ballroom banqueting hall and a lower ground floor a billiard room, smoking room and wine cellar. The upper floors contain 12 bedrooms.
 
The Hume family had settled at Humewood and built a castle there in the 15th century. The estate passed down through successive generations to Fitzwilliam Hume (1805–1892) who was the wealthy MP for Wicklow from 1852 to 1880. He commissioned architect William White to design a country retreat for the summer and the shooting season. White exceeded his brief and the final result, built between 1867 and 1870, was today's Gothic fantasy which far exceeded the budget, bankrupting White in the process. Fitzwilliam Hume assumed the surname of Dick in 1864 under the terms of a legacy. His only son William Hume inherited the property and was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Wicklow and served as High Sheriff of Wicklow for 1896.
 
After William Hume's death the estate passed to his daughter Catherine Marie-Madeleine (Mimi), who had married Jacques Weygand, son of the French General Maxime Weygand. They had no children. Shortly before her death in 1992, Mimi Weygand presented the majority of the estate cottages, including several in Kiltegan, to her tenants. The castle and 450-acre estate were subsequently sold at auction to the German businesswoman Renata Coleman for £1 million.
 
Renata Coleman developed the house into an upmarket private hotel and introduced duckshooting and polo in the grounds. She marketed it in 2004 at an offering price of EUR 16 million. Coleman sold it to the Galway developer John Lally’s company, Lalco, to be further developed. Economic conditions were unfavourable, however, and in 2012 it was sold at a loss for 8 million euros to American billionaire John Malone.

Angelica Kauffman, RA (1741 - 1807)

was a Swiss-born Austrian Neoclassical painter who had a successful career in London and Rome. Though born as "Kauffmann", Kauffman is the preferred spelling of her name in English; it is the form she herself used most in signing her correspondence, documents and paintings.

While Kauffman produced many types of art, she identified herself primarily as a history painter, an unusual designation for a woman artist in the 18th century. History painting, was considered the most elite and lucrative category in academic painting during this time period. Under the direction of Sir Joshua Reynolds, the Royal Academy made a strong effort to promote history painting to a native audience who were more interested in commissioning and buying portraits and landscapes.

Despite the popularity that Kauffman enjoyed in British society and her success as an artist, she was disappointed by the relative apathy that the British had towards history painting. Ultimately she left Britain for the continent, where history painting was better established, held in higher esteem and patronized.

The works of Angelica Kauffman have retained their reputation. By 1911, rooms decorated with her work were still to be seen in various quarters. At Hampton Court was a portrait of the duchess of Brunswick; in the National Portrait Gallery, a self-portrait. There were other pictures by her at Paris, at Dresden, in the Hermitage at St Petersburg, in the Alte Pinakothek atMunich, in Kadriorg Palace, Tallinn (Estonia).

Satinwood

is a hard and durable wood with a satinlike sheen, much used in cabinetmaking, especially in marquetry. It comes from two tropical trees of the family Rutaceae (rue family). East Indian or Ceylon satinwood is the yellowish or dark-brown heartwood of Chloroxylon swietenia.

The lustrous, fine-grained, usually figured wood is used for furniture, cabinetwork, veneers, and backs of brushes. West Indian satinwood, sometimes called yellow wood, is considered superior. It is the golden yellow, lustrous, even-grained wood found in the Florida Keys and the West Indies.

It has long been valued for furniture. It is also used for musical instruments, veneers, and other purposes. Satinwood is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Sapindales, family Rutaceae.