Irish Map: Neville (Arthur), cartographer. Map of Stillorgan Park, the Property of James Price Esq

An important original manuscript estate map, surveyed in June 1833, executed in ink and original hand-colouring on linen, with title cartouche and extensive manuscript tables recording tenants in possession, lessees, acreage and observations. The survey depicts the demesne, cottages, gardens, fields and adjoining lands along Newtown Road and Carysfort Avenue, together with a contemporary manuscript annotation. Approx. 47 x 58 cms (18½ x 23 ins), framed and glazed.

An exceptionally rare original manuscript survey of Stillorgan at a pivotal period in its development. Prepared by Arthur Neville for James Price Esq. in June 1833, the map records the layout and occupation of the estate in remarkable detail, identifying individual tenants, buildings, gardens and agricultural plots. Estate surveys of this quality were working documents produced in very limited numbers for landowners and were seldom intended for wider circulation. Surviving examples are consequently of considerable rarity and provide an invaluable record of early nineteenth-century south County Dublin, making this an important acquisition for collectors of Irish maps, local history and manuscript cartography.

Stillorgan is one of Dublin’s oldest settlements, with origins dating back to the early medieval period. By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it had developed into a prosperous village surrounded by substantial demesnes and landed estates, including Stillorgan Park. Its proximity to Dublin made it attractive to wealthy landowners, before suburban expansion transformed the area during the twentieth century into one of south Dublin’s principal residential districts.

[Tudor]