hidden in plain view
traordinary example of false books used in a di V erent context, lining the Library window shutters so that they mimic the shelves. Following the accession in 1781 of Robert Stewart (1739–1822), a long programme of enhancement was undertaken at Mount Stewart, converting the existing modest house into the family’s principal seat. Some 40 years of building work ensued, which included in 1804–5 the addition of a new wing to the west end of the house according to designs drawn up partly by George Dance Junior (1741–1825) and partly by the carpenter and architect John Ferguson. 26 The shutters were commissioned for the new library room, which formed the south-most end of the new extension. The date of their creation can be established with certainty. Two receipts in the estate papers record that on 18 February 1805 Lord Londonderry paid £ 14.7s.7d ‘For binding mock books for window shutters’, 27 then on 29 April 1807 a further £ 16:17s:2d, ‘For mock books for the doors and win- dows’, 28 but sadly they make no note of the payee. Alas, no visual re- cord survives of them in situ , but the library room c.1807 must have been an imposing sight. The mahogany veneer presses have su V ered much over the past 210 years, but when first fitted the contrast of the di V erent coloured woods must have been striking. Closing the shutters and the monumental cantilever doors between Library and Music Room, presumably also decorated with false books, would have created a wholly book-lined space, to great dramatic e V ect. When compared to Killerton or Chatsworth, the false spine titles at Mount Stewart appear at first glance to be a rather drab selection: there are certainly no immediately apparent puns. A closer examina- tion of the selection of spine titles, however, reveals much more. It rapidly becomes apparent that a great deal of e V ort has been put into the specific selection of the authors and works cited on the spines. Far from filling the false shelves with endless runs of Philosophical Transactions , or Gentleman’s Magazine , which would have produced 26 . The carpenter was responsible for creating the marquetry floor within the Temple of the Winds in the 1780s, but by 1805 was acting as executant architect at Mount Stewart for Dance. 27 . Public Record O Y ce of Northern Ireland, D654/H1/4, fol. 58 [henceforth: PRONI]. 28 . PRONI D654/H1/4, fol. 130.
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