Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Stuccadore. Filippo Lafranchini, a younger brother of PAOLO LAFRANCHINI PAOLO LAFRANCHINI , was born in Bironico in the Ticino in Switzerland on 25 August 1702. It is not known where he learned his craft. Like Paolo he went to work in Britain and from 1739 onwards spent most of his time in Ireland. He appears to have gone home to Bironico in 1757 but by 1759 was back in Ireland and working at Castletown, Co. Kildare. He is mentioned in the Castletown accounts in 1765, when he received payments for unspecified work between 25 September and 30 November and again in 1774, when payments are recorded for cleaning and mending the lock for 'Mr Frankiny's room' (4 May) and for obtaining a 'new double screw'd hook' for him.(17 June).(1) In his will of 4 October 1773 he nominated his younger brother Pietro-Natale as his sole heir. Filippo died at some point after
September 1778, when he is described in the lease of the family's inn at Bironico as living in Ireland, and before 28 June 1779 when his will was proved. The 'Signor La Franchini, Italy' who subscribed to Robert Pool & John Cash, Views…in the City of Dublin (1780) was presumably Pietro-Natale.

See WORKS for Irish works only; see also works of PAOLO LAFRANCHINI. PAOLO LAFRANCHINI.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from Carlo Palumbo-Fossati, Gli Stuccatori Ticinesi Lafranchini in Inghilterra e in Irlanda nel Secolo XVIII (Fondazione Ticino Nostro, Lugano, 1982). Professor Palumbo-Fossati summarizes the contents of this work in English in his article 'The Stuccoists Lafranchini in Ireland', BIGS 25 (1982), 5-18.

(1)
Accounts in Conolly Papers on deposit in IAA, Acc. 97/84.


4 work entries listed in chronological order for LAFRANCHINI, FILIPPO *


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Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, KILDARE STREET, LEINSTER HOUSE
Date: 1750s
Nature: Plasterwork in ground-floor dining room attributed to FL by Griffin.
Refs: 2 unsigned, undated designs in IAA, Guinness drawings collection, Acc. 96/68, 1/2;  repr. in David J. Griffin & Caroline. Pegum, Leinster House (Dublin: IAA & OPW, 2000), Pls. 61 & 62;  Christine Casey, The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin (2005), 502.


Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, ST STEPHEN'S GREEN, NO. 009 (STEPHEN'S GREEN CLUB)
Date: 1757ca
Nature: Decoration of stairhall and 3 (or 4 reception rooms) attr. to Filippo Lafranchini by McDonnell and to Paolo and Filippo by Py Palumbo-Fossati. For Rev. Cutts Harman.
Refs: Carlo Palumbo-Fossati, Gli Stuccatori Ticinesi Lafranchini in Inghilterra e in Irlanda nel Secolo XVIII (Fondazione Ticino Nostro, Lugano, 1982), 74-77, Pls. 56-62; Joseph McDonnell, Irish Eighteenth-Century Stuccowork and its European sources (National Gallery of Ireland, 1991), 23-24, Pls. 94-96;  Christine Casey, The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin (2005), 536.

Building: CO. KILDARE, CASTLETOWN
Date: 1759;1765;1774
Nature: Decoration of stairhall for Thomas Conolly. Also at Castletown in 1765 and 1774
Refs: Carlo Palumbo-Fossati, Gli Stuccatori Ticinesi Lafranchini in Inghilterra e in Irlanda nel Secolo XVIII (Fondazione Ticino Nostro, Lugano, 1982), 77-79, Pl. 66; Accounts in Conolly Papers on deposit in IAA, Acc. 97/84.

Building: CO. CORK, KILSHANNIG
Date: 1765-66ca
Nature: By Filippo Lafranchini ( with help from Pietro Natale?) for Abraham Devonsher.
Refs: C.P. Curran, C.P. Curran, Dublin Decorative Plasterwork of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (1967), ?; Carlo Palumbo-Fossati, Gli Stuccatori Ticinesi Lafranchini in Inghilterra e in Irlanda nel Secolo XVIII (Fondazione Ticino Nostro, Lugano, 1982), 79-81, Pls. 67-70; Joseph McDonnell, Irish Eighteenth-Century Stuccowork and its European sources (National Gallery of Ireland, 1991), 19-20, Pls. 59-63