Chimneypiece
William Silver Frith (1850 - London 1924)
Category
Architecture / Features & Decoration
Date
1870 - 1899
Materials
Marble
Measurements
4200 x 2850 x 800 mm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Cliveden Estate, Buckinghamshire
NT 766366
Summary
A late 19th century statuary marble chimneypiece designed and made by William Frith for Lord Astor. It is composed of over 100 carved pieces, a central panel of putti arranged as the family tree in tiers in the art deco style. The chimneypiece, in white statuary marble, was carved by William Silver Frith c. 1890. It is constructed in two tiers. At the base are two semi-nude female caryatids surrounding a notched Tudor arch and supporting a carved frieze and a mantelshelf. Above the mantelshelf the second tier is framed with two sets of engaged Corinthian columns set in splay formation: the outer pair towards the back are fluted and the inner pair flanking the centrepiece panel are set towards the front and decorated with twisted vines. The centre panel celebrates Astor’s ancestry, with rows of Putti each holding a shield bearing the name of one of Astor’s forebears (the putti’s faces bear a resemblance to those carved by Frith on the lamp standards outside 2 Temple Place). The chimneypiece is extremely large measuring 4.2 metres high by 2.85 metres wide with the depth of 0.8 metres. It is composed of over 100 finely carved jointed pieces. The chimneypiece was originally supported by steel joists in the wall at 2 Temple Place and the marble sections would have been secured together using ironwork cramps. When it was erected in the Sounding Room under the terrace at Cliveden, it was set up against the wall with a great weight of brick walling set as backing to the marble mantelshelf. Cement was poured behind the pieces to make the whole edifice into a solid mass. Following the removal from the Sounding Room in 2012, the chimneypiece pieces were cleaned of cement prior to packing in wooden crates. It would appear that the original hearth remains intact in the Sounding Room while the Library at 2 Temple Place has a replica, the replica has signs of the column bases beside it. The dimensions of the hearth are approximately 2 metres long by 60 cms in depth with a height probably of 3-4 cms.
Provenance
The chimneypiece of statuary marble was designed and made by William Silver Frith in the late 19th century for William Waldorf Astor. At some point, either near the start of the Second World War or during the war, the chimneypiece was removed from 2 Temple Place and placed in the Sounding Room beneath the South Terrace at Cliveden, where it was listed in 1955.
Makers and roles
William Silver Frith (1850 - London 1924), designer William Silver Frith (1850 - London 1924), sculptor