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拍品专文
This chimneypiece is conceived in the George III Roman or 'antique' manner promoted by Robert and James Adam during the 1760's. The central tablet with swag-hung covered urn, breakfront form and strongly architectural uprights all have parallels to their published chimneypiece designs including the 1761 design for the drawing room of Shardeloes, Buckinghamshire (illustrated D. Stillman, Decorative Work of Robert Adam, London, 1966, fig. 99) and the 1766 design for the dining room of Harewood House, Yorkshire (Ibid, fig. 103).
The delicately carved 'Arcadian' nymph hiding within the ruffled acanthus oval medallion on top of each upright, a distinctive and unusual motif in and of itself, also features on the chimneypiece in the Etruscan-styled State Bedroom of Osterley Park, Middlesex, circa 1777 (illustrated in G. Beard, The Work of Robert Adam, New York, 1978, fig. 76). Robert Adam was engaged by Francis Child to modernize Osterley Park first in 1761, and would continue to supply designs and guidance over the next two decades (see E. Harris, The Genius of Robert Adams: His Interiors, New Haven, 2001, chapter 10, pp. 157-179). While Adam is known to have supplied the design for the State Bed and the painted chimney-board for that room in 1778, it is unclear whether the chimneypiece in that room followed his design or had been contracted from the sculptor Joseph Wilton after designs by William Chambers (Ibid, pp. 159 and 173-177). Although designs for chimneypieces appear in Chambers' Treatise on Civil Architecture of 1759, none are convincingly comparable to the present chimneypiece or the one at Osterley Park.
Other features of this chimneypiece such as the Greek-key frieze, white statuary marble contrasting with warmly toned giallo antico marble and crisp carving can be compared to the work of Henry Cheere (1703-1781), whose yard was near St. Margaret's, Westminster. Apprenticed to the sculptor John Nost, Cheere is celebrated for his chimneypieces supplied to such princely houses as Ditchley Park, Longford Castle, Kimbolton Castle and Kirtlington Park. A member of the committee of artists who met to discuss the scheme that resulted in the founding of the Royal Academy, Cheere was knighted by George III in 1760. A related chimneypiece attributed to Cheere was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 19 April 2001, lot 61 ($30,550).
The delicately carved 'Arcadian' nymph hiding within the ruffled acanthus oval medallion on top of each upright, a distinctive and unusual motif in and of itself, also features on the chimneypiece in the Etruscan-styled State Bedroom of Osterley Park, Middlesex, circa 1777 (illustrated in G. Beard, The Work of Robert Adam, New York, 1978, fig. 76). Robert Adam was engaged by Francis Child to modernize Osterley Park first in 1761, and would continue to supply designs and guidance over the next two decades (see E. Harris, The Genius of Robert Adams: His Interiors, New Haven, 2001, chapter 10, pp. 157-179). While Adam is known to have supplied the design for the State Bed and the painted chimney-board for that room in 1778, it is unclear whether the chimneypiece in that room followed his design or had been contracted from the sculptor Joseph Wilton after designs by William Chambers (Ibid, pp. 159 and 173-177). Although designs for chimneypieces appear in Chambers' Treatise on Civil Architecture of 1759, none are convincingly comparable to the present chimneypiece or the one at Osterley Park.
Other features of this chimneypiece such as the Greek-key frieze, white statuary marble contrasting with warmly toned giallo antico marble and crisp carving can be compared to the work of Henry Cheere (1703-1781), whose yard was near St. Margaret's, Westminster. Apprenticed to the sculptor John Nost, Cheere is celebrated for his chimneypieces supplied to such princely houses as Ditchley Park, Longford Castle, Kimbolton Castle and Kirtlington Park. A member of the committee of artists who met to discuss the scheme that resulted in the founding of the Royal Academy, Cheere was knighted by George III in 1760. A related chimneypiece attributed to Cheere was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 19 April 2001, lot 61 ($30,550).