Fireplace
Category
Architecture / Features & Decoration
Date
Unknown
Materials
Carrara marble, stone, metal
Collection
Osterley Park and House, London
NT 773459
Summary
Fireplace at the south end of the east wall of the Long Gallery (right-hand side of door to Entrance Hall). Neoclassical, caryatid chimneypiece in Statuary marble. A caryatid is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support, in this case to the mantle shelf above. The decoration is a mix of three different styles baroque, rococo and neoclassical. The architect William Chambers designed the marble chimneypieces in the Long Gallery (drawings in the Avery Library, Columbia University, New York). The drawing was used by the sculptor Joseph Wilton when he created the chimneypieces in about1759. The final pieces are slightly different from the original design. They may have been finished by 1761, but the readjusted fireplaces were not ready to receive them until 1764 when Robert Adam was updating the Long Gallery. The marble hearth extends into the room.The firebox is lined with metal plate at the back and base. There is a metal firestop and damper, with lever at the top of the firebox. The sides are black stone, secured to the marble surround with two small angle brackets.The fender is CMS 771972 and basket grate is CMS 771971.