The Drawing Room fireplace
Robert Adam (Kirkcaldy 1728 - London 1792)
Category
Architecture / Features & Decoration
Date
circa 1760 - 1763
Materials
Marble and steel
Measurements
1945 x 1140 x 50 mm
Place of origin
Great Britain
Order this imageCollection
Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire
NT 107932
Summary
White marble and steel and alabaster, the Drawing Room fireplace, attributed to Michael Henry Spang (d. 1762) after Robert Adam (1728-92). c. 1760-63. A chimneypiece attributed to Michael Henry Spang, designed by Robert Adam (NT 107932.1). In white marble with rectangular shelf, cornice moulded with palmette, dentil, egg and dart, and bead motifs. The breakfront has a centralized rectangular relief panel depicting Virtue rewarded by riches and honour. To the left and right of the relief panel are relief festoons of flowers, fruit and foliage suspended by ribbons. Behind the left festoon a decorative jug in relief with cameo portrait and handle in the shape of a leopard. Behind the right festoon a circular dish in relief with rosette at centre. Recessed to the left and right of the breakfront are two caryatid female figures in classical drapery, each holding their mantles to their heads with their proper right and proper left hands respectively, mirroring each other. Fitted with a steel basket grate, bowed, with rails, designed by Robert Adam; the grate with relief paterae, fret pierced with anthemia motif, fluted tapering legs with paterae motif, surmounted with steel finials in the shape of amphorae. A marble hearth stone with meander (Greek key) motif in alabaster inlaid around outer edge, fitted flush to floor. The Drawing Room was completed in 1763 to designs by Robert Adam (see NT 109434). Robert Adam's original design for the chimneypiece is in Sir John Soane's Museum (SM Adam volume 22/15).
Provenance
Purchased by Nathaniel Curzon (1726-1804) c. 1760-63 as part of Robert Adam's remodeling of Kedleston; identifiable in 'Catalogue of the pictures, statues, &c. at Kedleston' (1769) as 'Chimney-piece, Statuary Marble. Two whole-length Female Figures. Tablet, Virtue rewarded with Riches and Honour, basso-relievo' (p. 12); purchased with part of the contents of Kedleston with the aid of the National Heritage Memorial Fund in 1987 when the house and park were given to the National Trust by Francis Curzon, 3rd Viscount Scarsdale (1924-2000).
Credit line
Kedleston Hall, The Scarsdale Collection (acquired with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and transferred to The National Trust in 1987)
Makers and roles
Robert Adam (Kirkcaldy 1728 - London 1792), architect attributed to Michael Henry Spang (fl.c.1750 - d.London 1762), sculptor Robert Adam (Kirkcaldy 1728 - London 1792), designer
References
Harris 1987: Leslie Harris and Gervase Jackson-Stops (ed.), Robert Adam and Kedleston: The Making of a Neo-Classical Masterpiece, London 1987