[3] Design for chimney-piece with a tall obelisk draped with wreaths at the side of the overmantel and a putto leaning against a vase on a pedestal in the centre of the mantel shelf

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English Baroque Drawings: architecture, sculpture and garden design
- Hampton Court Palace
  - Designs for chimney-pieces, room cornices and entablatures, door cases and internal wall elevations, c.1689-1694, mostly by Grinling Gibbons
    - Thirteen designs for tall and richly sculpted chimney-pieces, in a variety of wash colours; probably for principal state rooms

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Reference number

SM, volume 110/34

Purpose

[3] Design for chimney-piece with a tall obelisk draped with wreaths at the side of the overmantel and a putto leaning against a vase on a pedestal in the centre of the mantel shelf

Aspect

Elevation, incomplete on right

Scale

About ^7/₈inch to 1 foot

Inscribed

In ink by Dance at bottom right, Gd, and in a C19 hand to right, (34)

Signed and dated

Undated, but datable 1689-94

Medium and dimensions

Pen and brown ink with pink, light green, yellow, green-grey, blue and grey washes over graphite under drawing, with ruled graphite shading on the pink wall covering and freehand graphite shading on the obelisk on laid paper, with slight staining in top 15 mm 410 x 237

Hand

Gibbons

Watermark

Shield with a 4-line diagonal band above 'AJ' (Abraham Jansen), and above the shield a large fleur-de-lys (Strabourg bend: ask Peter Bower)

Notes

The porcelain vase stands on a gadrooned convex podium that rests on a convex-sided plinth with fishscale decoration on its central relief panel. The vase would probably have been in porcelain rather than trompe l'oeil carving. The ruled graphite lines on the pink of the wall covering around the picture frame may indicate the sheen of damask, or mosaic (see 1, above; 110/24). Limewood carving would probably have been restricted to the draped ribbons and wreaths of flowers and laurel leaves around the obelisk, and to the draped curtains over the top of the picture frame. It is possible that the draped obelisk is intended as a symbol of mourning and that the design could, therefore, post-date the death of Queen Mary in December 1694. Gibbons has sketched and partly inked the outlines of a three-part entablature at the top of the design. This would indicate a principal state room.

Literature

Wren Society, IV, pl. 30, bottom

Level

Drawing

Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation

If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: drawings@soane.org.uk