post box

Painted cast-iron round-headed post box, c.1905, having raised lettering and Edward VII cipher. Heavily painted maker’s mark to rear. Attached to painted cast-iron lamp post, having fluted post and foliate collars. Lamp missing.

Lamp boxes, post boxes with rounded tops designed to be affixed to lamp posts, are more vulnerable to removal than wall or pillar boxes, so the survival of this one and its continued use is notable. The cipher of Edward VII indicates its early twentieth-century origins, and the repainting of postboxes following the foundation of the state was a simple and practical method of reclaiming these artefacts of Ireland’s colonial past. The decorative cast-iron lamp post, which has bars at the top which would have been used as a ladder rest by the lamplighter, also demonstrates a high standard of design and execution.