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Preliminary design for a ceiling for the great staircase, 1768, executed with minor alterations (1)

The great staircase is located at the centre of the north range, adjacent to the eating room to the west, and the library to the east.

According to Harris, it was the arrival of Rubens' Glorification of the Duke of Buckingham in 1767 which prompted some reworking of the room. Buckingham was a distant relative of the Child family, and his two portraits by Rubens - originally commissioned by Buckingham himself for York House - were purchased by the older Francis Child in 1697, and installed in his townhouse at 42 Lincoln's Inn Fields. When 42 Lincoln's Inn Fields was replaced by Robert Child with the more fashionable 38 Berkeley Square, Rubens' two portraits were removed to Osterley, one to the gallery, and the other to the staircase. Unfortunately, both paintings were destroyed by fire on Jersey in 1949, but there is a modern copy of the Glorification of the Duke of Buckingham currently set into the ceiling of the staircase at Osterley.

Adam had installed a new ceiling in the great staircase in 1765, but this was demolished to make way for Rubens' painting. The new ceiling of 1768 was executed in accordance with Adam's design, except that the guilloche border was replaced with Vitruvian scroll to match the wall mouldings and carved baluster handrail. The plasterwork of the ceiling survives in situ.
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