Irish Dressers and Delph - by Meredith S Chesson (Hardcover)

About the Book

How do people transform a house, condo, or flat into a home that nourishes body and soul? This book focuses a scholarly lens on one homemaking practice, dresser- and delph-keeping in western Connemara, where people utilise everyday belongings and heirlooms to evoke a powerful sense of welcome and emotional wellbeing.

Book Synopsis

How do people transform a house or flat into a home that nourishes both body and soul? How do they engage in the alchemy of homemaking? This book focuses a scholarly lens on one homemaking practice, dresser- and delph-keeping in western Connemara, where people utilise these everyday belongings and heirlooms to evoke a powerful sense of welcome and emotional wellbeing. Written for a broad, non-specialist audience, this richly illustrated book presents the results of an anthropological and archaeological study, describing the ways that residents of the island communities of Inishbofin, Inishark, Inishturk and nearby mainland towns of Clifden and Cashel today and in the past used dressers to store and display delph and other heirlooms to convert an architectural space into a meaningful homeplace.

At first blush, a dresser's fundamental job is simple: to store possessions, including ceramic table- and teawares, glass vessels, photographs, vials of holy water, letters, travel souvenirs, eyeglasses, heirlooms, money, and even wills. Dressers accomplish this task ably, but their work also encompasses the spiritual and historical realms of people's lives. Dressers and delph anchor homes, protecting and embracing memories of loved ones lost to death or emigration, as well as important milestones like births, christenings, graduations, pilgrimages, and marriages. Dressers and delph connect people across space and through time by telling stories of personal histories and social memories, and they act as symbols of hospitality, family history, and community identity. By furnishing homes with old dressers and delph, dresser- and delph-keepers today create a welcoming place to nourish families, celebrate the resiliency of their ancestors, and craft a more sustainable future for themselves and their descendants.

Enthusiasts of Irish history, archaeology, anthropology, vernacular architecture, folklore, antiques, and material culture studies will find connections with their own heritage and homemaking practices.

Review Quotes

Combining archaeological and anthropological research with detailed fieldwork, this comprehensive publication considers the requirements which transform a house into a home. Meredith concentrates on the dresser and its much cherished delph which form an integral part of this transformation. She draws on her broad experience to focus on rural communities in western Ireland, providing an expansive range of examples encompassing both past and present. This study affords a glimpse of the personalities who curated and cared for the wonderful collections of heirlooms.--Rachel Mc Kenna "Architect and author of publications including, Traditional Architecture in Offaly"

Drawing on archival records, archaeological research, ethnographic interviews and oral histories, Meredith Chesson details one of the most engaging ways in which communities and individuals make homes out of houses: through their dressers and the objects they display on them. This beautifully written and illustrated book shows how these humble items of furnishing and decoration anchor stories that link a family's past, present and future and connect geographically peripheral communities to the wider world through trade, migration and tourism. A highly original and compelling work.--Diarmuid Ó Giolláin "Professor Emeritus, Irish Language and Literature, University of Notre Dame"

Methodologically rigorous and theoretically rich, Chesson's beautifully illustrated study evocatively captures the entangled relationships between people and their things, demonstrating how dressers and delph materialize memories, knit together kin and community, and transform a house into a home. Chesson's compelling prose coupled with the direct words of household members vividly captures the intimacy and vibrancy of homemaking in the west of Ireland.--Audrey Horning "Professor of Archaeology, Queens University Belfast"