Designs for a chimneypiece and overmantel mirror frame for Lady Bathurst's dressing room / third drawing room (now the yellow drawing room), 1774, possibly executed (2)

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Robert and James Adam office drawings
- Town houses
  - London
    - Apsley House, Piccadilly, London: plans, elevations, section and designs for the interior, and an elevation for the gatehouse, for the 2nd Earl Bathurst, 1771-1779 (56)

Purpose

Designs for a chimneypiece and overmantel mirror frame for Lady Bathurst's dressing room / third drawing room (now the yellow drawing room), 1774, possibly executed (2)

Notes

The current chimneypiece for the third drawing room (now the yellow drawing room) bears no resemblance to the Adam design. It is unknown whether the chimneypiece was ever executed. Harris suggests that as this was the most ornate and expensive piece, it was perhaps too valuable to leave behind when the 3rd Earl Bathurst sold the house in 1805 to Lord Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington’s brother. If executed it was possibly sculpted by Thomas Carter junior, whose name appears in the Apsley bank accounts.

Harris credits the execution of the Apsley House mirrors and girandoles to Sefferin Nelson, the carver and gilder appointed to execute Adam’s designs for Derby House. She notes a significant payment of £259 made to Nelson from Lord Bathurst’s account at Drummond’s, dating to 1779.

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Contents of Designs for a chimneypiece and overmantel mirror frame for Lady Bathurst's dressing room / third drawing room (now the yellow drawing room), 1774, possibly executed (2)