Cooper's Ireland: Drawings and Notes from an Eighteenth-Century Gentleman

by Peter Harbison, Austin Cooper
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Editorial Reviews

The occupation of Austin Cooper (1759-1830) as one of His Majesty's tax collectors working in Dublin enabled the young Cooper to indulge the greatest passion of his life - sketching the ancient buildings and monuments of Ireland. From 1781 to 1793, this dedicated and prolific artist focused on Ireland's castles, abbeys, churches and round towers, both complete and ruined, and filled two albums with pen-and-ink drawings. This volume gathers together Cooper's work in its entirety. Dr Peter Harbison provides extended captions and quotes from Cooper's own diaries. These illuminate the work of a man who did so much to help preserve a heritage that was already disappearing, even in his own time.

Customer Reviews

A view into Ireland 200+ years ago, 2006-12-13
by Anthony Cooper (Louisville, KY United States)
I was interested in this book because the Cooper in the title is one of my ancestors. The book is essentially a series of black-and-white drawings done by Austin Cooper in the 18th century. He made drawings of old monasterys, castles, and towers as he travelled around Ireland collecting taxes. The author fills in historical detail about each site, and in some cases, explains how the site looks now.

Obviously, it's just an antiquity picture book, it will appeal to some people very much. As for other descendants of Austin Cooper, you might as well buy it too.