post box

Freestanding cast-iron pillar box, erected c.1930. Moulded neck, shallow domed cap, curved hinged door having aperture to east elevation. Monogram ‘P&T’ to door. Maker’s mark ‘CARRON COMPANY / STIRLINGSHIRE’ to rear.

This attractive piece of street furniture represents the high quality of mass-produced cast-iron work in the early years of the twentieth century. The insignia, representing the national Posts & Telegraphs service (fl. 1924-84), dates the box to the early years of the Irish State and provides decorative as well as contextual interest. It continues to fulfil its function and is testimony to the robust quality of manufacture. Following Independence, the Irish government continued to commission pillar boxes from British firms as well as Irish ones. This model was erected in Britain during the reign of George V (1910-1936), with the GR cipher rather than the P&T monogram on the door. It is indicative of the continuity of design right through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, until the adoption of rectangular steel post boxes in more recent decades.