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Purpose
Signed and dated
- 1772
Notes
Another Peter Giffard (dates unknown), succeeded his cousin Thomas Giffard in 1718, and from 1724 began a programme of rebuilding by commissioning additions, including a new south front and offices to the rear, all to designs by Francis Smith (1672-1738). His son, Thomas Giffard senior (1735-76), then commissioned Lancelot 'Capability' Brown (1716-83) to landscape the park, with a bridge by James Paine (1717-89), and Robert Adam made designs for a new house, but this was not executed on account of the patron's sudden death, aged 41 in 1776. The rebuilding was finally completed in 1785-90 by the next owner, Thomas Giffard junior (1764-1823), sweeping away much of the surviving Tudor fabric, and building to designs by Sir John Soane (1753-1837). There are 25 extant drawings from Soane's office for Chillington within the drawings collection at Sir John Soane's Museum. His saloon at Chillington is of particular note, and its restoration won the Historic Houses Association/Sotheby's Restoration award in 2009.
See also: The drawings of John Soane/Country houses/Chillington Hall.
Literature:
A.T. Bolton, The architecture of Robert and James Adam, 1922, Volume II, Index pp. 6, 72; A. Oswald, 'Chillington Hall, Staffordshire', Country Life, 13, 20, 28 February 1948; E. Harris, The furniture of Robert Adam, 1963, Index p. 48; N. Pevsner, The buildings of England: Staffordshire, 1974, pp. 102-3; P. Dean, 'Chillington Hall, Staffordshire', Country Life, 30 September 1999, pp. 80-87; P. Dean, Sir John Soane and the country estate, 1999, pp. 41-53; D. King, The complete works of Robert & James Adam and unbuilt Adam, 2001, Volume II, p. 124
Frances Sands, 2013
Level
Sir John Soane's collection includes some 30,000 architectural, design and topographical drawings which is a very important resource for scholars worldwide. His was the first architect’s collection to attempt to preserve the best in design for the architectural profession in the future, and it did so by assembling as exemplars surviving drawings by great Renaissance masters and by the leading architects in Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries and his near contemporaries such as Sir William Chambers, Robert Adam and George Dance the Younger. These drawings sit side by side with 9,000 drawings in Soane’s own hand or those of the pupils in his office, covering his early work as a student, his time in Italy and the drawings produced in the course of his architectural practice from 1780 until the 1830s.
Browse (via the vertical menu to the left) and search results for Drawings include a mixture of Concise catalogue records – drawn from an outline list of the collection – and fuller records where drawings have been catalogued in more detail (an ongoing process).
Contents of Chillington Park, Brewood, Staffordshire: unexecuted designs for a house and a table for Thomas Giffard, 1772 (6)
- Designs for a new house, 1772, unexecuted (3)
- Designs for additions to the older house, 1772, unexecuted (2)
- Preliminary designs for a table for the hall, 1772, unexecuted (1)