Carved limewood overmantel with fish, shells, game birds, flowers, fruit, and foliage
Edmund Carpenter
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1688
Materials
Limewood
Measurements
1500 x 1000 mm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Belton House, Lincolnshire
NT 435033.2
Summary
Limewood, carved applique overmantel, Edmund Carpenter, 1688. A limewood overmantel carving comprised of two drops and central swags with cresting piece depicting fish, shells, fruit, foliage and flowers.
Full description
The central swags of fruit, buttercup, primrose and foliage are crested with an intricate double acanthus scroll interlaced with sprays of wheat. For the drops bunches of rose and acanthus scrolls are trussed with fish, shells and game birds. The angler’s catch includes freshwater fish like trout, perch, salmon and carp and marine fish like bass and plaice; some of these are later additions, probably by William Gibbs Rogers (see Marsden 1987, p.9). Of the clustered shells, which are encased in a string of pearls, abalone, cowrie, conch, turritella, scallop and mussel can be seen. The drops conclude in pigeon and snipe, trussed and hung, framed by a garland of catkins, acanthus, crocus and seedpods.A bill for the sum of £26 10s was presented by Edmund Carpenter for a ‘very rich Chimny peece’ in the ‘greate Parlor don wth varieties of fish and sheals | with birds fouliage fruit & flowers…’ (dated 26 March 1688). The same bill also lists NT 435096, a frieze panel which is now installed in the Tyrconnel Room. Carpenter is likely also to have produced the panel installed below this overmantel, depicting a central bouquet and vase with palm sprays and garlands of arrowhead vine, and panel NT 435033.5 which depicts the same kinds of shell and fish as this overmantel. Alice Rylance-Watson October 2018
Provenance
Acquired by Sir John Brownlow (1659-97) 1688 (see bill by Edmund Carpenter for £23 10s, dated 26 March 1688). Purchased with a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) from Edward John Peregrine Cust, 7th Baron Brownlow, C. St J. (b.1936) in 1984.
Credit line
Belton House, The Brownlow Collection (acquired with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund by the National Trust in 1994)
Makers and roles
Edmund Carpenter, woodcarver
References
Esterly1998: David Esterly, Grinling Gibbons and the art of carving, V&A Publications, London 1998, p.97 Green 1964: David Green, Grinling Gibbons: His work as carver and statuary 1648-1721, London 1964, pp.114-5 Tipping, 1913: Henry Avray Tipping, Grinling Gibbons and the Woodwork of his Age 1648-1720, 1913, pp.185-201