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Lot Essay
THOMAS CHIPPENDALE AT HAREWOOD HOUSE
The panels offered here come from the most expensive hexagonal lantern supplied by Thomas Chippendale (1718-79) to Edwin, 1st Baron Harewood (1713-95) for the Entrance Hall at Harewood House, Yorkshire. Harewood was Chippendale’s most important and valuable commission, almost certainly exceeding £10,000 (1). He, and subsequently his son, Thomas Chippendale Junior (1749-c. 1822), worked there between 1767 and 1797, supplying a wealth of furniture and most of the lighting for the state rooms, family apartments and servant’s quarters to create ‘one of the best and compleatest Houses in the Kingdom’ (2). The lantern was invoiced on 26 August 1774: ‘An Exceedingly large Brass Hall Lanthorn, richly ornamented in the Antique manner finely finished and Lacquered’; the total cost came to £123 8s and included £14 for ‘6 Transparent plates of Glass for the Sides and a Large Do for the Bottom’ (3). It is evident from Chippendale’s bill ‘Carving and various Patterns in wood… Carving and afterwards Chasing them in Lead & brass .’ that his workshop probably created the designs in wood but the actual casting and chasing was subcontracted out (4). William Bent, who was Chippendale’s near-neighbour in St. Martin’s Lane, supplied brass door-furniture to Harewood and Nostell Priory, and was just one of many braziers, who were probably engaged by Chippendale (5). The price of the frame at £100 seems particularly high when compared to the £86 charged for the magnificent Diana and Minerva marquetry commode still at Harewood (6). The lantern was delivered with ’27 feet of Oval brass Chain finely lacquered’, and suspended from the hall ceiling. According to the building accounts, it was fixed in place in September 1774 by a local joiner, John Walker, who was also providing miscellaneous furniture to Harewood (7).
IDENTIFICATION OF THE LANTERN
Although Gilbert identifies another surviving lantern of colossal scale, measuring approximately 6 ft. tall by 4 ft. wide, that now hangs on the main staircase as the lantern from the bill, this is an octagonal lantern (8). Chippendale clearly specifies the provision of ‘6 Transparent plates of Glass for the sides’ suggesting that the hall lantern was in fact hexagonal (9). The octagonal lantern does not appear in Chippendale’s extant bills for Harewood; it is unlikely to be a second lantern cited: ‘A very neat wrought Brass Lanthorn with Antique ornaments finely finished. Lacquered & Glazed with best Crown Glass’ that cost £12 13s as it is too ornate and large to have cost such a lowly sum (10). Gilbert admits the ambiguity in his attribution of the octagonal lantern as the one from the bill, because of its form, but suggests that its ‘colossal scale and comparative descriptions in the 1795 inventory [actually 1801], ‘In the Great Hall: One Very Large Glass Lanthorn with a Brass Frame’, supports identification with the “Exceeding large Brass Hall Lanthorn”’ (11). However, Gilbert evidently never saw the converted screens nor the Christie’s 1948 valuation, the latter stating: ‘Made from original hanging light’ (12). The dimensions of the firescreen would equally merit the description ‘Exceeding large’ in its incarnation as a lantern.
According to John Jewell, who described some of the state rooms at Harewood in 1819, there were three lanterns of note at this date: one in the ‘Entrance Hall’, ‘From the centre of the ceiling, is suspended a beautiful lamp’; another on the ‘Best-Stair-case’, ‘an elegant glass lantern is suspended from the Ceiling; with a beautiful lamp in the inside’, and one more in the ‘Yellow Drawing Room’, ‘the cieling [sic], from which is suspended a beautiful lamp’ (13). Jewell’s description of a lantern ‘with a beautiful lamp in the inside’ on the main staircase appears to correspond to the octagonal lantern still in situ at Harewood that Gilbert suggested erroneously was the hall lantern. Alternatively, the octagonal lantern may have come from neighbouring Goldsborough Hall, the country seat of Daniel Lascelles (1714-84), younger brother of Edwin. The 1801 inventory for the mansion lists: ‘1 Round Japand Gold Lanthorn with a Lamp Chain’ in the ‘Passage bottom of Great Stairs’ (14).
WHY, WHEN, WHO?
Throughout the 19th century there were great advancements in lighting and the fashion for different forms of lighting, whether colza oil, gas or electricity, and with these changes came new styles; it is, therefore, likely, that the hall lantern was taken down and converted into a pair of screens during the period of George Trollope & Sons’ renovation of Harewood’s interiors in the early mid-19th Century. The quality of the conversion and, in particular, the gilt lacquer that remains on the lantern, is consistent with 18th century practices still employed in the mid-19th century, especially the scraping and burnishing, which produces a ripple effect. Trollope & Sons were evidently accustomed to modifying and updating furniture when it was considerably cheaper to adapt an existing piece rather than make anew; in the Trollope bills held at the West Yorkshire Archive Service (WYAS), ‘restoration of old furniture’, and alterations to chimney and pier glasses in, respectively, the Billiard Room and Drawing Room are listed in addition to provision of new furniture, extensive regilding, reupholstering, French polishing, supplying carpets and hangings, and general decorative painting and plastering (15).
The lantern was retained and treated with reverence, in line with the treatment of other Chippendale pieces at Harewood at the time, such as the careful packing and storage of redundant Chippendale carvings from mirrors and cornices (16). It seems likely that the newly created screens were employed as a pair of firescreens in the Library which has two fireplaces and where one firescreen is recorded in a photograph taken by Country Life in 1914 (17). In the Christie’s valuation of January 1948, this screen and its pair (the other half of the hexagonal lantern) were separated and recorded respectively in the ‘Coffee Room’ and the ‘Workshops’ at Harewood (18). In the valuation, it states that the two screens were ‘Made from original hanging light’, indicating that this may have occurred in living memory.
THE CONVERSION
For the conversion from lantern to a pair of firescreens, the 18th century lantern panels were fixed with 19th century legs and hinges. In addition large adjoining double C-scrolls were attached at the base for decorative effect. These scrolls were cast in the round and joined; they appear to be re-used from the original branches that would have reached up to the corona or crown. The back of each panel is most probably all 18th century but slightly adapted when the conversion was made from lantern to screen. The only addition is that one panel has had the double swag of husks that appears towards the bottom of the panel, immediately below the formerly glazed panel, replaced probably in circa 1900. It is not immediately obvious how each panel was joined to the next, but there was likely an inner frame which would offer the required rigidity. In any recreation the joint between the panels and the missing ornament is problematic; it would seem extremely unlikely that the Luna and Aurora heads would sit directly side by side when the panels were joined, so it seems likely that is was conceived with a further element at the angles. The corona or crown is lost but the branches that joined the hexagonal body to the corona are there in part.
(1) C. Gilbert, The Life & Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, I, p. 195.
(2) Chippendale supplied ‘lanthorns’ and ‘gerandoles’ to Harewood; in some of the passages and backstairs at Harewood, there are glazed brass lanterns with neo-classical decoration, ram’s heads, husk chains, paterae and anthemion, ‘fully consistent with Chippendale’s authorship’ (Ibid., p. 199).
(3) Ibid., p. 208.
(4) Ibid., pp. 45, 199.
(5) Ibid., p. 45.
(6) A. Stephenson, ‘Chippendale Furniture at Harewood’, Furniture History, vol. 4, 1968, p. 65.
(7) Gilbert, op. cit., p. 199. A ‘John Walker joiner’ is recorded in the Harewood parish registers; he was probably one of the partners in the firm of Bottomley & Walker, which undertook much of the joinery work to the interior of the house (A. Mullins, ‘Local Furniture-makers at Harewood House as Representatives of Provincial Craftsmanship’, Furniture History, vol. 1, 1965, p. 36).
(8) Gilbert, op. cit., pp. 199, 205, f/n 20.
(9) Ibid., p. 208.
(10) Ibid.
(11) Ibid., p. 205; Harewood MSS Inventories, Harewood House, 1801, p. 23.
(12) Christie, Manson & Woods, The Estate of the Rt. Hon. Henry George Charles Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood: Valuation for Probate, January 1948, vol. 4, p. 17, no. 6.
(13) J. Jewell, The tourist’s companion; or, The history and antiquities of Harewood in Yorkshire, Leeds, 1819, pp. 21, 30-31, 26.
(14) Harewood MSS Inventories: Goldsborough Hall, 1801, p. 15.
(15) WYL250_3_acs_523; 524; 527.
(16) Gilbert, op. cit., p. 200; II, pp. 70-72, figs. 108-112.
(17) L2961; A.T. Bolton, ‘Harewood House: The Seat of the Earl of Harewood’, Country Life, 4 July 1914, p. 25.
(18) Christie, Manson & Woods, The Estate of the Rt. Hon. Henry George Charles Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood: Valuation for Probate, January 1948, vol. 4, p. 17, no. 6.
The panels offered here come from the most expensive hexagonal lantern supplied by Thomas Chippendale (1718-79) to Edwin, 1st Baron Harewood (1713-95) for the Entrance Hall at Harewood House, Yorkshire. Harewood was Chippendale’s most important and valuable commission, almost certainly exceeding £10,000 (1). He, and subsequently his son, Thomas Chippendale Junior (1749-c. 1822), worked there between 1767 and 1797, supplying a wealth of furniture and most of the lighting for the state rooms, family apartments and servant’s quarters to create ‘one of the best and compleatest Houses in the Kingdom’ (2). The lantern was invoiced on 26 August 1774: ‘An Exceedingly large Brass Hall Lanthorn, richly ornamented in the Antique manner finely finished and Lacquered’; the total cost came to £123 8s and included £14 for ‘6 Transparent plates of Glass for the Sides and a Large Do for the Bottom’ (3). It is evident from Chippendale’s bill ‘Carving and various Patterns in wood… Carving and afterwards Chasing them in Lead & brass .’ that his workshop probably created the designs in wood but the actual casting and chasing was subcontracted out (4). William Bent, who was Chippendale’s near-neighbour in St. Martin’s Lane, supplied brass door-furniture to Harewood and Nostell Priory, and was just one of many braziers, who were probably engaged by Chippendale (5). The price of the frame at £100 seems particularly high when compared to the £86 charged for the magnificent Diana and Minerva marquetry commode still at Harewood (6). The lantern was delivered with ’27 feet of Oval brass Chain finely lacquered’, and suspended from the hall ceiling. According to the building accounts, it was fixed in place in September 1774 by a local joiner, John Walker, who was also providing miscellaneous furniture to Harewood (7).
IDENTIFICATION OF THE LANTERN
Although Gilbert identifies another surviving lantern of colossal scale, measuring approximately 6 ft. tall by 4 ft. wide, that now hangs on the main staircase as the lantern from the bill, this is an octagonal lantern (8). Chippendale clearly specifies the provision of ‘6 Transparent plates of Glass for the sides’ suggesting that the hall lantern was in fact hexagonal (9). The octagonal lantern does not appear in Chippendale’s extant bills for Harewood; it is unlikely to be a second lantern cited: ‘A very neat wrought Brass Lanthorn with Antique ornaments finely finished. Lacquered & Glazed with best Crown Glass’ that cost £12 13s as it is too ornate and large to have cost such a lowly sum (10). Gilbert admits the ambiguity in his attribution of the octagonal lantern as the one from the bill, because of its form, but suggests that its ‘colossal scale and comparative descriptions in the 1795 inventory [actually 1801], ‘In the Great Hall: One Very Large Glass Lanthorn with a Brass Frame’, supports identification with the “Exceeding large Brass Hall Lanthorn”’ (11). However, Gilbert evidently never saw the converted screens nor the Christie’s 1948 valuation, the latter stating: ‘Made from original hanging light’ (12). The dimensions of the firescreen would equally merit the description ‘Exceeding large’ in its incarnation as a lantern.
According to John Jewell, who described some of the state rooms at Harewood in 1819, there were three lanterns of note at this date: one in the ‘Entrance Hall’, ‘From the centre of the ceiling, is suspended a beautiful lamp’; another on the ‘Best-Stair-case’, ‘an elegant glass lantern is suspended from the Ceiling; with a beautiful lamp in the inside’, and one more in the ‘Yellow Drawing Room’, ‘the cieling [sic], from which is suspended a beautiful lamp’ (13). Jewell’s description of a lantern ‘with a beautiful lamp in the inside’ on the main staircase appears to correspond to the octagonal lantern still in situ at Harewood that Gilbert suggested erroneously was the hall lantern. Alternatively, the octagonal lantern may have come from neighbouring Goldsborough Hall, the country seat of Daniel Lascelles (1714-84), younger brother of Edwin. The 1801 inventory for the mansion lists: ‘1 Round Japand Gold Lanthorn with a Lamp Chain’ in the ‘Passage bottom of Great Stairs’ (14).
WHY, WHEN, WHO?
Throughout the 19th century there were great advancements in lighting and the fashion for different forms of lighting, whether colza oil, gas or electricity, and with these changes came new styles; it is, therefore, likely, that the hall lantern was taken down and converted into a pair of screens during the period of George Trollope & Sons’ renovation of Harewood’s interiors in the early mid-19th Century. The quality of the conversion and, in particular, the gilt lacquer that remains on the lantern, is consistent with 18th century practices still employed in the mid-19th century, especially the scraping and burnishing, which produces a ripple effect. Trollope & Sons were evidently accustomed to modifying and updating furniture when it was considerably cheaper to adapt an existing piece rather than make anew; in the Trollope bills held at the West Yorkshire Archive Service (WYAS), ‘restoration of old furniture’, and alterations to chimney and pier glasses in, respectively, the Billiard Room and Drawing Room are listed in addition to provision of new furniture, extensive regilding, reupholstering, French polishing, supplying carpets and hangings, and general decorative painting and plastering (15).
The lantern was retained and treated with reverence, in line with the treatment of other Chippendale pieces at Harewood at the time, such as the careful packing and storage of redundant Chippendale carvings from mirrors and cornices (16). It seems likely that the newly created screens were employed as a pair of firescreens in the Library which has two fireplaces and where one firescreen is recorded in a photograph taken by Country Life in 1914 (17). In the Christie’s valuation of January 1948, this screen and its pair (the other half of the hexagonal lantern) were separated and recorded respectively in the ‘Coffee Room’ and the ‘Workshops’ at Harewood (18). In the valuation, it states that the two screens were ‘Made from original hanging light’, indicating that this may have occurred in living memory.
THE CONVERSION
For the conversion from lantern to a pair of firescreens, the 18th century lantern panels were fixed with 19th century legs and hinges. In addition large adjoining double C-scrolls were attached at the base for decorative effect. These scrolls were cast in the round and joined; they appear to be re-used from the original branches that would have reached up to the corona or crown. The back of each panel is most probably all 18th century but slightly adapted when the conversion was made from lantern to screen. The only addition is that one panel has had the double swag of husks that appears towards the bottom of the panel, immediately below the formerly glazed panel, replaced probably in circa 1900. It is not immediately obvious how each panel was joined to the next, but there was likely an inner frame which would offer the required rigidity. In any recreation the joint between the panels and the missing ornament is problematic; it would seem extremely unlikely that the Luna and Aurora heads would sit directly side by side when the panels were joined, so it seems likely that is was conceived with a further element at the angles. The corona or crown is lost but the branches that joined the hexagonal body to the corona are there in part.
(1) C. Gilbert, The Life & Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, I, p. 195.
(2) Chippendale supplied ‘lanthorns’ and ‘gerandoles’ to Harewood; in some of the passages and backstairs at Harewood, there are glazed brass lanterns with neo-classical decoration, ram’s heads, husk chains, paterae and anthemion, ‘fully consistent with Chippendale’s authorship’ (Ibid., p. 199).
(3) Ibid., p. 208.
(4) Ibid., pp. 45, 199.
(5) Ibid., p. 45.
(6) A. Stephenson, ‘Chippendale Furniture at Harewood’, Furniture History, vol. 4, 1968, p. 65.
(7) Gilbert, op. cit., p. 199. A ‘John Walker joiner’ is recorded in the Harewood parish registers; he was probably one of the partners in the firm of Bottomley & Walker, which undertook much of the joinery work to the interior of the house (A. Mullins, ‘Local Furniture-makers at Harewood House as Representatives of Provincial Craftsmanship’, Furniture History, vol. 1, 1965, p. 36).
(8) Gilbert, op. cit., pp. 199, 205, f/n 20.
(9) Ibid., p. 208.
(10) Ibid.
(11) Ibid., p. 205; Harewood MSS Inventories, Harewood House, 1801, p. 23.
(12) Christie, Manson & Woods, The Estate of the Rt. Hon. Henry George Charles Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood: Valuation for Probate, January 1948, vol. 4, p. 17, no. 6.
(13) J. Jewell, The tourist’s companion; or, The history and antiquities of Harewood in Yorkshire, Leeds, 1819, pp. 21, 30-31, 26.
(14) Harewood MSS Inventories: Goldsborough Hall, 1801, p. 15.
(15) WYL250_3_acs_523; 524; 527.
(16) Gilbert, op. cit., p. 200; II, pp. 70-72, figs. 108-112.
(17) L2961; A.T. Bolton, ‘Harewood House: The Seat of the Earl of Harewood’, Country Life, 4 July 1914, p. 25.
(18) Christie, Manson & Woods, The Estate of the Rt. Hon. Henry George Charles Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood: Valuation for Probate, January 1948, vol. 4, p. 17, no. 6.