The Nostell Priory Dining Room Pedestals and Urns, the design attributed to Robert Adam (1728 - 1792) - 1772
Sefferin Nelson (1739 - 97)
Category
Furniture
Date
1772
Materials
Carved and painted softwood, brass handle and hinges
Measurements
71.5 cm (Height); 44 cm (Diameter)
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire
NT 959774.2
Summary
A dining room pedestal, one of a set of four carved and painted dining room pedestals, all topped by urns, English, made for the Dining Room at Nostell Priory by Sefferin Nelson (1739 - 1797) in 1772, probably after a design by Robert Adam (1728 - 1792). The simulated marble decoration applied by Thomas Ward in 1819/1820; probably originally white-painted. The pedestal of cylindrical form, and with a lotus-leaf carved moulded and beaded edge, the frieze carved with ox's skulls between drapery swags. The body of the pedestal fluted and carved with a floral patera above a leaf-carved moulding. Fitted with a hinged door with brass axehead-shaped handle. The base straight-sided. Painted to simulate red porphyry. Two of the pedestals with void plinths; two with a shelf at the point where the plinth begins. Surmounted by an urn with finial and collar at the neck. The body topped by a fluted band and mounted with a pair of ram's heads, and applied with a lion mask between swags of husks. The stem with gadrooned knop, collar and circular foot carved with a band of foliage and with gadrooned edge. The urns painted to simulate white-veined green marble.
Full description
A document survives headed 'Carving done for Sir Rowland Winn Bart 27 June 1772 per Sefferin Nelson' and includes '4 Circular pedestals ox's skulls with festoon of Drapery - body fluted with rich paterae, rams heads to sides with festoon of husks...in the front Lyons Head with a Cock fixed in do...£62 5s 0d.' The same bill records Nelson's work on some curtain cornices 'from design of Mr. Adam'. The State Dining Room at Nostell, where these once stood, is the most complete of the interiors designed by James Paine after 1736, but was modified in 1772 by Robert Adam, who removed the pedimented window cornice and designed the arabesque ornament for the wall panels. It is probable, therefore, given the date that these pedestals were made, and that Nelson collaborated with Adam on other projects, that they were part of Adam's designs for the modified Dining Room at Nostell. Recorded in the 1806 inventory in the Dining Room as '4 painted Round Pedestals', and again in an inventory of 1818. Thomas Ward supplied an estimate of work in July 1819 including, in the Dining Room, '4 Pedestals and 4 vases prepared and painted imitations of Marbles highly varnished'. They are now in the Small Dining Room. Sefferin Nelson was a leading carver and gilder, known for interior decoration and the carving of picture and mirror frames. He worked on various Robert Adam houses, including Shelburne House in 1769 and Kenwood House in 1773. He worked for the Duke of Devonshire both at Chatsworth and Chiswick. (Megan Wheeler, February 2018)
Provenance
Accepted by HM Treasury in lieu of death duties on the estate of Rowland Winn, 4th Baron Oswald (1916 - 1984), 1986.
Marks and inscriptions
On top of pedestal: I
Makers and roles
Sefferin Nelson (1739 - 97), carver attributed to Robert Adam (Kirkcaldy 1728 - London 1792), designer Sefferin Nelson (1739 - 97), gilder
References
Gilbert, 1990: Christopher Gilbert. “New light on the furnishing of Nostell Priory.” Furniture History 26 (1990): 53 - 66, p. 58 and Figure 5