Introduction

Most of the standard works on the history of decorative plasterwork in this country date from the early decades of the twentieth century, and much new material relating to the architectural history of the sixteenth century has been uncovered since they were written. This study is an attempt to update our understanding of the development of decorative plasterwork in the first century or so of its popularity. Although broad surveys provide a useful overview of the subject, it is regional studies that have contributed most in recent years to a clearer understanding of plasterwork – how it was made, who commissioned it, who made it and why it looks the way it does. By focussing on the work of London plasterers it is possible to combine documentary and material evidence to provide a picture not only of what was happening in the capital - the hub of new ideas and fashions in interior decoration as in everything else at this period - but also how these ‘London styles’ were disseminated to othe r parts of the country.

‘London’ has been interpreted rather loosely for the purposes of this study, and encompasses the boroughs of present-day Greater London. This can be justified on practical grounds, since very little plasterwork survives in the City of London itself, and it can be shown that even in the Elizabethan and early Stuart period the influence of the City extended well beyond its old walls. By the mid-sixteenth century there were twenty-five wards north of the Thames and of these, nineteen were contained within the medieval walls, two were completely outside and four straddled them. In addition, in 1550 the City acquired jurisdiction over part of Southwark, across the Thames in Surrey, which became Bridge Ward Without. London had already grown well beyond the traditional “square mile” and the jurisdiction of livery companies like the Plasterers’ Company was further extended two miles beyond the City by their charters of incorporation.

At its western boundary, the City of London abutted the expanding City of Westminster, home of the royal court, Parliament and the judiciary, and there was much interchange between the two cities, not least in terms of the workforce engaged in the building trades. Both were wrapped around by Middlesex and are shown as insets to the map of that county in John Speed’s atlas (dated 1611). By the early seventeenth century wealthy Londoners, both citizens and courtiers, were acquiring suburban residences within easy reach of their town houses, mostly in Middlesex but also in Essex, Kent and Surrey, clustered around the River Thames and the Great North Road, the main transport routes in and out of the capital.[1] These houses, too, would have been built and decorated by London artisans and the archive material surviving for the Royal Works and the London Plasterers’ Company will provide the documentary basis for the examination of their activities.

Very few samples of plaster surviving from this period have been subjected to laboratory analysis and the records of the Royal Works are therefore invaluable sources for an understanding of the materials used and the different kinds of plastering undertaken. These are most fully described in the daily particular books kept by the clerk of works at each royal site, which survive only patchily for the first half of the sixteenth century, but provide a picture of what was probably ‘best practice’ for the period. After 1547 changes in the accounting procedures for the Royal Works meant that the particular books were subsumed into annual summaries for the Exchequer and the Audit Office.[2] For routine work the summary accounts are less informative than the particular books and it is quite common for the preliminary description of work carried out at a site (abbreviated hereafter to Prelims.) to contain no mention of plastering work, although ‘Plasterers’ are listed among the workmen employed. How ever, this is increasingly compensated for by the entries naming plasterers engaged on ‘task-work’ (when they were paid for a specific job, rather than at a daily rate), reflecting their rising status within the Royal Works. The information about the materials used contained in the task-work entries is especially useful since there is otherwise no means of knowing whether the ‘Emptions’ (or purchases) of lime and sand were intended for the plasterers or other building craftsmen, such as masons, bricklayers or tilers, who also used lime mortar.

The main source of documentary evidence for the plasterers themselves is provided by the surviving records of the London Plasterers’ Company, the majority of which are held by the Department of Manuscripts of the Guildhall Library. Although they are by no means complete they contain evidence for the personnel and their working practices in the form of ordinances, quarterage lists (recording payment of quarterly membership fees) and court minute books.[3] In addition to their dominant role in the political and social life of the City, the livery companies were crucial to the economic life of the capital.[4] They provided the structure which attempted to regulate the labour market, maintain standards of production and promote legislation for the benefit of the trade or craft of their members, and the Plasterers’ Company was active in all these fields.

Much new photography has been undertaken by my husband in the course of my research, to provide a visual record of the decorative plasterwork surviving in Greater London. Although a large amount has inevitably been lost over the intervening centuries, the enthusiasm of antiquarians from the late-eighteenth century onwards ensured that some examples, at least, were recorded before their demolition; and from the turn of the twentieth century, entire ceilings have been rescued. These sites are listed in the Gazetteer at the end. The pool of London work can be further enlarged by the inclusion of houses whose building accounts demonstrate that a London plasterer was employed on their decoration, such as Knole, Kent or Hatfield House, Hertfordshire. Before considering the appearance of such work, however, it is important that we understand how it was made and this will be the subject of the first chapter.

[1] The original county names will be used in identifying the location of these sites, together with the name of the relevant London borough.

[2] Although the two sets of accounts are theoretically identical, human error has inevitably crept into the compilation process, involving different clerks. Both sets of accounts have therefore been consulted to ensure as complete a record as possible. A list of the accounts available at The National Archives, Kew in the E 351/ and AO 1/ series appears as Appendix A, ‘The Accounts of the King’s Works 1485-1660’ in King’s Works, III, 395-7.

[3] These are, respectively, GL MSS 6132 (1587-1613); 6127/1 (1604-33) and 6127/2 (1661-81); 6122/1-2 (1571-1662).

[4] Two particularly useful studies provide the context within which the Plasterers’ Company operated: Steve Rappaport, Worlds within worlds: structures of life in sixteenth-century London, Cambridge, 1989; and Ian Archer, The Pursuit of Stability: Social Relations in Elizabethan London, Cambridge, 1991, especially Chapter 4, ‘The framework of social relations: the livery companies’, 100-48.

Abbreviations

 Add = Additional

ACL = Archdeaconry Court of London

Arch Jnl = Archaeological Journal

BL = British Library

BM = British Museum

Bodleian = Bodleian Library, Oxford

Cal SPD = Calendar of State Papers Domestic

CCL = Consistory Court of London

CLRO = Corporation of London Record Office

CRO = County Record Office

DNB = Dictionary of National Biography

GL = Guildhall Library, London

Harris & Higgott = John Harris & Gordon Higgott, Inigo Jones Complete Architectural Drawings, London, 1989.

HKW = Howard Colvin, ed., The History of the King’s Works, 5 vols, London, 1963-82;           Vol. III: 1485-1660, part I, 1975. Vol. IV: 1485-1660, part II, 1982.

HMC = Historical Manuscripts Commission

IGI = International Genealogical Index

JBAA = Journal of the British Archaeological Association

JWCI = Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes

L&P = J.S. Brewer & J. Gairdner (eds.), Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, 1862-1920.

LMA = London Metropolitan Archive

MF = Microfiche

MoL = Museum of London

n = note

NMR = National Monuments Record, English Heritage, Swindon

Nottingham = Nottingham University

PCC = Prerogative Court of Canterbury

RCAHMS = Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland

RCHME = Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England

Rep = Repertory of the Court of Aldermen

Serlio = The Five Books of Architecture (Dover facsimile of London,1611, edition).

SP = State Papers

TNA = The National Archives, Kew

TBGAS = Transactions of Bristol and Gloucester Archaeological Society

V&A = Victoria & Albert Museum

VCH = Victoria County History

 

In quotations from primary sources, the original spelling has been retained, though the archaic letter ‘thorn’ has been transcribed ‘th’. Abbreviations and contractions have been silently expanded. Dates are in Old Style but dates falling between January 1 and March 25 are given in Old Style/New Style.

 

 

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

I am indebted to the following for kind permission to include photographs of plasterwork:

Guy Hart Dyke, Esq (Lullingstone Castle, Kent); Sir Julian Rose (Hardwick House, Oxon); Lord Salisbury (Hatfield House, Herts); Lord and Lady Saye & Sele (Broughton Castle, Oxon); the Master and Governors of the Charterhouse; London Metropolitan Archives.

 

Chapter I

 Fig. 1. Detail from the woodcut map (‘Agas’), showing the plaster kiln billowing smoke at Scotland Yard, Westminster (1560s).  © London Metropolitan Archives.

 Fig. 2. Lime plaster wall console, Acton Court, Gloucestershire (1535). © Kirsty Rodwell.

 Fig. 3. Reconstruction drawing of fretwork ceiling decoration with ribs painted on plaster, Acton Court (1535).

 Fig. 4. Frieze of ‘antick’ decoration painted on plaster, Acton Court (1535). 

 Fig. 5. The hall at Hatfield House illustrated in Vitruvius Britannicus, Vol. V (1833).

 Fig. 6.  The frieze of the Great Dining Room at Ham House, as originally painted in 1637.

 

Chapter IV

 Fig. 7. A measured drawing of the ceiling of the ‘Beauty Room’ at Windsor Castle (1500-02). © Scottish Record Office.

 Fig. 8. Plan showing layout of ceilings at Muchelney Abbey, Somerset. (From T Garner & A Stratton, The Domestic Architecture of England during the Tudor Period, 1911).

 Fig. 9. Watercolour of the hall of Great Chalfield Manor, Wiltshire, in 1823 by J C Buckler, held in the house.

 Fig.10. Rib layouts on ceilings from Layer Marney Hall, Essex (early 1520s). (From T Garner & A Stratton, The Domestic Architecture of England during the Tudor Period, 1911).

 Fig. 11. The ceiling of the gallery at Bermondsey Abbey. (From T Garner & A Stratton, The Domestic Architecture of England during the Tudor Period, 1911).

 Fig. 12. A ceiling in Cardinal Wolsey’s Lodgings, Hampton Court (1526-8). (From L Turner, Decorative Plasterwork in Great Britain, 1927).

 Fig. 13. A ceiling in Cardinal Wolsey’s lodgings, Hampton Court (1526-8). (From L Turner, Decorative Plasterwork in Great Britain, 1927).

 Fig. 14. The ceiling of the Great Watching Chamber, Hampton Court (1535). (From Joseph Nash, Mansions of England in the Olden Time, 1839).

 Fig. 15. The pendant in the ceiling originally over the Great Stairs at Blickling Hall, Norfolk (early 1620s).

 Fig. 16. A boss showing its timber spindle on the ceiling of the Great Chamber, Hardwick House, Oxon (c.1610).

 Fig. 17. Ceiling of the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace (c.1540). (C J Richardson, Architectural Remains of the Reigns of Elizabeth and James I, 1838).

 Fig. 18. Serlio, Book IV, f. 68v, top left (Dover facsimile of The Five Books of Architecture, 1611).

 Fig. 19. Serlio, Book IV, f. 69r, bottom right (Dover facsimile of The Five Books of Architecture, 1611).

 Fig. 20. Serlio, Book IV, f. 68v, bottom left (Dover facsimile of The Five Books of Architecture, 1611).

 Fig. 21. 

Left: Serlio, Book IV, f. 69r, top right (Dover facsimile of The Five Books of Architecture, 1611);

Right: drawing of detail of Wolsey’s Closet ceiling (from M Jourdain, English Decorative Plasterwork of the Renaissance, 1926).

Fig. 22. : Serlio, Book IV, f. 69v, top left (Dover facsimile of The Five Books of Architecture, 1611)

Fig. 23. Serlio, Book IV, f. 68v, bottom right (Dover facsimile of The Five Books of Architecture, 1611).

Fig. 24. Ceiling and frieze in the Abbot’s Parlour, Thame, Oxon.

Fig. 25. Heraldic badges from a lost ceiling at Westenhanger Manor, Kent.

Fig. 26. Detail of the ceiling of the gallery at West Horsley Place, Surrey.

Fig. 27. The ceiling of the gallery at Holcombe Court, Devon.

Fig. 28. Plaster overmantel now in the King’s Chamber, Broughton Castle, Oxon.

Fig. 29. Plasterer’s design for the ceiling of the hall at Ramsbury Hall, Wilts. © Marquess of Bath.

Fig. 30. Sir Roger Newdigate’s drawing of the long gallery at Copt Hall, Essex, before its demolition.

Fig. 31. Ceiling of the alcove in the great chamber of the Charterhouse (c.1570).

Fig. 32. Plans of the ceilings and elevation of the chimneypiece at Sheffield Manor Lodge, Yorkshire (Journal of British Archaeological Association, Vol XXX (1874), 42).

Fig. 33. Section of the frieze in the parlour of Ormond Castle, Ireland (1575).

Fig. 34. Section of the overmantel in the parlour of Ormond Castle, Ireland (1575).

Fig. 35. Section of the long gallery frieze at Ormond Castle, with the bust of Queen Elizabeth flanked by the figures of Justice and Equity.

Fig. 36. Ceiling fragment in bay of the “Hell” staircase at Burghley House, Lincs.

Fig. 37. Frieze and pendant on ceiling fragment at Burghley House.

Fig. 38. Pendant on ceiling fragment at Burghley House.

Fig. 39. Rathgeb’s sketch of a ceiling at Theobalds, Herts (1592).

Fig. 40. Frieze in the Council Chamber, King’s Manor, York, with the crest of Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon (c.1580).

Fig. 41. Ceiling and frieze of the first-floor great chamber, Helmsley Castle, Yorks (c.1582).

Fig. 42. A section of the ceiling of the long gallery at Brooke House, Hackney (c.1580).

Fig. 43.  ‘Quatrepetal’ blind tracery on the fifteenth-century porch at South Wingfield Manor, Derbyshire.

Fig. 44. Ceiling of the Inlaid Chamber, Sizergh Castle, Westmorland (c.1580).

Fig. 45. Ceiling of Heslington Hall, Yorks (1568).

Fig. 46. Detail of pendant on ceiling of great chamber, Broughton Castle, Oxon (1599).

Fig. 47. Strapwork cartouche from the frieze of the new great chamber, Ormond Castle (1575).

Fig. 48.  Section of frieze from first-floor chamber, Helmsley Castle, Yorks (c.1582).

Fig. 49. Hall ceiling, Plas Mawr, Conwy (1580).

Fig. 50. Hall overmantel, Plas Mawr, Conwy (1580).

Fig. 51. Overmantel in the withdrawing room, Little Moreton Hall, Cheshire (before 1559).

Fig. 52. Gable-end of the gallery, Little Moreton Hall, with the figure of Destiny (1560-70).

Fig. 53. Overmantel in the second-floor chamber, Sheffield Manor Lodge.

Fig. 54. Sir Thomas Tresham’s ‘Crucifixion’ reredos, Rushton Hall, Northants (1577).

Fig. 55. Frontispiece to J Britton, Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain, Vol II, London, 1809 & 1835.

Fig. 56. Ceiling of the great chamber, Broughton Castle, Oxon (1599).

Fig. 57. Enriched-rib ‘quatrepetal’ ceiling, great chamber?, Canonbury House, Islington (1599).

Fig. 58. Date cartouche on enriched-rib ceiling, great parlour?, Canonbury House, Islington (1599).

 

Chapter V

Fig. 59. View of the hall ceiling and window soffits in the Leathersellers’ Company Hall, published by J P Malcolm in Londinium Redivivum, Vol 3, 1805, 562. © London Metropolitan Archives.

Fig. 60. Ceiling and frieze of the Lumley Chapel, Cheam, Surrey (1592).

Fig. 61. Section of the beam soffit of the Lumley Chapel, Cheam, Surrey (1592).

Fig. 62. Chancel roof of Church of St Katharine Cree, with arms of City of London and Fishmongers’ Company (1628).

Fig. 63. Above: Beam soffit, Bury Hall, Edmonton.

             Below: Frieze, ‘Old Palace’, Bromley-by-Bow.

Fig. 64. Ceiling divided by cross-beams, Adelina Grove, Stepney.

Fig. 65. Hall ceiling, Knole, Kent (1607).

Fig. 66. Ceiling of great chamber (now the Ballroom), Knole, Kent (1607).

Fig. 67. Narrow-rib ceiling in 1st-floor North-East room, Forty Hall, Enfield (1629).

Fig. 68. Narrow-rib ceiling in 1st-floor South-East room, Forty Hall, Enfield (1629).

Fig. 69. Flat-rib ceiling of the ground-floor withdrawing room, Forty Hall, Enfield (1629).

Fig. 70. Ceiling from a house in Goodman’s Yard, Minories. A drawing of this ceiling by C J Richardson appeared in The Builder, September 23rd 1848.

Fig. 71. A ceiling from Oldbourn Hall, Shoe Lane, Holborn illustrated in R Wilkinson, Londina Illustrata, Vol I (revised edition, 1834).

Fig. 72. One of the ceilings from Enfield Manor House (1580s).

Fig. 73. A narrow-rib quatrepetal design on the ground-floor ceiling at Essex House, Putney in a drawing of 1872 from the Dryden Collection, Northampton Central Library).

Fig. 74. Ceiling at 17 Fleet Street drawn by Roland Paul, Vanishing London, 1894.

Fig. 75. Section of the ceiling at Crosby Hall Chambers, 25 Bishopsgate Within, drawn by Roland Paul, Vanishing London, 1894.

Fig. 76. Ceiling in the North-East room, 1st floor, Eagle House, Wimbledon (1614).

Fig. 77. Above: Ceiling of the state bedchamber at Boston Manor House (1623).

            Below: Walter Gedde, A Booke of Svndry Dravghtes, London, 1615, p. 35.

Fig. 78. The ceiling above the great staircase at Audley End, Essex (c.1610).

Fig. 79. A first-floor ceiling at Cromwell House, Highgate (late 1630s).

Fig. 80. Section of the long gallery ceiling at Hatfield House, Herts (1610-11).

Fig. 81. Strapwork in one of the soffits of the hall screen at Hatfield House.

Fig. 82. Details showing strapwork in the plaster decoration of the Galerie François Ier at Fontainebleau (1530s).

Fig. 83. A section of the ceiling of the long gallery at Charlton House, Greenwich (1610-12).

Fig. 84. A ceiling from Sir Paul Pindar’s House, Bishopsgate, with strapwork surrounding a roundel depicting the Sacrifice of Isaac.

Fig. 85. Strapwork at the centre of the hall ceiling at Charlton House, Greenwich (1610-12).

Fig. 86. Section of the great chamber ceiling at Boston Manor House, Brentford (1623).

Fig. 87. View and detail of the plasterwork in the long gallery at Charlton Park, Wilts (c.1607).

Fig. 88. Section of the ceiling of the King’s Withdrawing Chamber, Audley End, Essex (c.1610).

Fig. 89. View of the King’s Great Chamber, Audley End.

Fig. 90. Detail of the rib enrichment in the King’s Great Chamber, Audley End.

Fig. 91. The mermaid panel from the ceiling of the King’s Great Chamber, Audley End.

Fig. 92. View of the great chamber ceiling at Eagle House, Wimbledon (1614).

Fig. 93.

Left: Badge of the Levant Company, with garbled motto, Canonbury House (1599).

Right: The ‘tun’ rebus of Joseph Fenton, Tottenham Priory (1620).

Fig. 94. Floral spray with ‘beads’, Eagle House, Wimbledon, 1st-floor North-East room.

Fig. 95. Distinctive floral sprays at Tottenham Priory, Middlesex.

Fig. 96. Flowering pinks on the ceiling of the Cartoon Gallery, Knole

Fig. 97. Plant bearing marigold and roses on the ceiling of the great chamber, Knole.

Fig. 98. Oak tree with acorns on the ceiling of the great chamber, Knole.

Fig. 99. Cast motifs showing repetitions and recombinations of elements on the ceilings of the 1st-floor S E room and the ground-floor room at Forty Hall, Enfield.

Fig. 100. Grotesque masks from the ceiling of the first-floor East room at Canonbury House.

Fig. 101. Medallion heads from Canonbury House, 1st-floor ceiling, each in a different surround.

Above: Full-face head of Julius Caesar.

Below: Variant profile heads of Alexander the Great.

Fig. 102. The stone chimneypiece with plaster overmantel of Hercules and Atlas from the first-floor room in Sir Paul Pindar’s House, Bishopsgate (1600).

Fig. 103. The central cartouche of the overmantel in the great chamber of Boston Manor House, with a scene of The Sacrifice of Isaac (1623).

Fig. 104. Overmantel from the Charterhouse, ex situ, with the Theological Virtues.

Fig. 105. Scene of Perseus slaying Medusa on the overmantel of the White Drawing Room, Charlton House, Kent (1610-12).

Fig. 106. Drawing by C J Richardson of the ground-floor ceiling of a house in Gravel Lane, Houndsditch, bound into a copy of Architectural Remains of the Reigns of Elizabeth and James I, London, 1840.

Fig. 107. Section of the long gallery ceiling at Blickling Hall, Norfolk (1620).

Fig. 108. Ceiling in the closet in the North East Turret off the long gallery, Blickling Hall.

Fig. 109. Overmantel in the great chamber, Boston Manor House (1623).

Fig. 110. The Danaë overmantel in the Newton Room, Charlton House (1610-12).

Fig. 111. The figure of Visus (Sight) from the great chamber ceiling, Boston Manor House (1623).

Fig. 112. The figure of Sight from the ceiling of Kew Palace (1630).

 

Chapter VI

Fig. 113. Ground-floor ceiling at Bury Hall, Edmonton (c.1620).

Fig. 114. Floral sprays from moulds based on the same source, produced by different carvers at two Oxfordshire houses, Mapledurham (above) and Hardwick House (below).

Fig. 115. The beaky bird and foliage spray at Sir Paul Pindar’s house (left) and Forty Hall (right).

Fig. 116. Winged figure spearing a monster (?St Michael and the Devil) with a squirrel eating a nut in a title-page border (1604) and in the frieze of Mr Fettyplace’s chamber, Chastleton House, Oxon.

Fig. 117. Section of the frieze in the Great Chamber, Broughton Castle (1599).

Fig. 118. Drawing of the frieze above the chimneypiece in the North-East room, Cromwell House, Highgate (P Norman, Cromwell House, Highgate, London Survey Committee Monograph 12, London, 1926).

Fig. 119. Ceiling ex situ, now at Stone Hall, Wanstead.

Fig. 120. Central section of a first-floor ceiling (? great chamber) at Bury Hall, Edmonton.

Fig. 121. Section of a ground-floor passage ceiling at Bury Hall, Edmonton.

Fig. 122. Detail of the floral spray from the hall ceiling at Boston Manor House.

Fig. 123. Ceilings of the great chamber at Charlton House, Greenwich (left) and of the Queen’s withdrawing chamber at Audley End, Essex (right).

Fig. 124. Merman and mermaid from the 2nd-floor West room of Eastgate House, Rochester (1591)

Fig. 125. Profile head of Alexander the Great, Lynsted Park, Kent (1599).

Fig. 126. Heads of Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great, Lynsted Park, Kent (1599).

Fig. 127. A section of the great chamber ceiling, Mapledurham, Oxfordshire.

Fig. 128. The heads of Juno from the first-floor and of Venus from the staircase at Mapledurham House.

Fig. 129. Ceilings from ground floor (above) and 1st floor (below) at Mapledurham House with identical rib enrichment.

Fig. 130. Winged cherub head from the great chamber ceiling at Hardwick House, Oxon.

Fig. 131. Variant winged cherub heads from the great chamber (above) and 1st-floor room (below) at Mapledurham. Note the inverted date cartouche.

Fig. 132. Roundels of female busts from the great chamber ceiling at Hardwick House.

Fig. 133. Ceiling in the Old Schools, University of Cambridge.

Fig. 134. Floral motif with acorns from Trinity College, Cambridge: Master’s Lodge (above) and Great Court H.3 (below).

Fig. 135. Small acorn spray from the ceiling of Great Court H.3, Trinity College, Cambridge.

Fig. 136. Barrel-vaulted ceiling of the great chamber, Lullingstone Castle, Kent.

Fig. 137. Section of the rib design in the Reynolds Room, Knole.

Fig. 138. Section of the rib design and acorn spray at Lullingstone Castle.

Fig. 139. Acorn sprays on the ceilings of the screens passage (left) and of the gallery over the hall (right) at Knole.

Fig. 140. Head of Augustus from Lullingstone Castle (above) and the engraving by Nicolas de Bruyn on which it is based (below).

Fig. 141. Profile head of Hersilia Sabina in moresque surround at the centre of the ceiling at Lullingstone Castle.

Fig. 142. Section of the great chamber ceiling of Great Campden House, drawn by C J Richardson (G Bankart, The Art of the Plasterer, London, 1908, 162).

Fig. 143. Details of the strapwork terminations at (left) Eagle House, Wimbledon, and (right) Hatfield House.

Fig. 144. A measured drawing of the ceiling of the withdrawing or bedchamber from Albyns, Essex (M Jourdain, English Decorative Plasterwork of the Renaissance, London, 1926, Fig. 7).

Fig. 145. Ceiling of the State Bedchamber at Blickling Hall, Norfolk (1620).

Fig. 146. Detail from the Withdrawing Room ceiling at Forty Hall, Enfield.

Fig. 147. Ceiling of the great chamber at Blickling Hall.

Fig. 148. Detail of the ‘doiley’ on the ceiling of the 1st-floor North-East room at Forty Hall.

Fig. 149. Coat-of-arms of  Fane mounted on a strapwork cartouche on the enriched-rib ceiling of the great chamber at Apethorpe Hall.

Fig. 150. A selection of casts taken from the enrichments used at Apethorpe Hall.

Fig. 151. The Peacock badge of the Manners family, shown during conservation, from the great chamber ceiling of Apethorpe Hall.

Fig. 152. Strapwork with overlapping oval ‘coin’ ornament on the strapwork at:

(above) Blickling Hall, in the entrance porch to the courtyard

(below) Forty Hall on the ceiling over the staircase.

 Fig. 153. Left: Lion mask from the great chamber ceiling, Apethorpe Hall

 Right: Lion mask from the 1st-floor S E room ceiling, Forty Hall.

 Fig. 154. Motif from the ceiling of the Yellow Bedroom, Chilham Castle, Kent.

 Fig. 155. The strand of overlapping ‘coins’ between the strapwork coils at the centre of the Red Bedroom ceiling, Chilham.

 Fig. 156. The relief of ‘Doctrina’, based on Peacham’s Minerva Britanna, from the ceiling of the long gallery, Blickling Hall.

 Fig. 157. The high-relief figure of ‘Doctrina’, based on Peacham’s Minerva Britanna, from the tympanum of the first-floor room, Langleys, Essex.

 Fig. 158. Section of the ground-floor ceiling, Langleys, Essex.

 

Chapter VII

Fig. 159. The ceiling of the Banqueting House, Whitehall (1619-22).

Fig. 160. Plan of the hall ceiling, Queen’s House, Greenwich (late 1630s).

Fig. 161. Plan of the ceiling of the Queen’s New Cabinet or Withdrawing Room, Queen’s House, Greenwich (late 1630s).

Fig. 162. Plan of the ceiling of the Queen’s Cabinet, Queen’s House, Greenwich (late 1630s).

Fig. 163. View of the ceiling of the Great Stairs at Ham House.

Fig. 164. View of the soffits of the Great Stairs at Ham House.

Fig. 165. A high-relief bay garland on a soffit of the Great Stairs at Ham House.

Fig. 166. View of the ceiling of the Great Dining Room at Ham House.

Fig. 167. Detail of the fruit and foliage garland in the Great Dining Room.

Fig. 168. The frieze in the Great Dining Room at Ham House.

Fig. 169. View of the ceiling of the North Drawing Room at Ham House.

Fig. 170. Detail of the garlands in the North Drawing Room at Ham House.

Fig. 171. Drawing of a ceiling from Balmes House, Hackney by G W Toussaint (1852).

Fig. 172. Drawing of a ceiling from Balmes House, Hackney by G W Toussaint (1852).

Fig. 173. Drawing of a ceiling from Balmes House, Hackney from Illustrated London News, June 5th, 1852.

Fig. 174. Plan of the layout of the great chamber ceiling at Swakeleys, Middlesex (W Godfrey, Swakeleys, Ickenham, Monograph 13, London Survey Committee, London (1933).

Fig. 175. Guilloche and Tudor rosette on the beams of the great chamber ceiling at Swakeleys.

Fig. 176. Winged cherub head on the great chamber ceiling at Swakeleys.

Fig. 177. Panel in the window bay of the great chamber at Swakeleys.

Fig. 178. Measured drawing of the great chamber ceiling at Cromwell House, Highgate, with enlarged details. (P Norman, Cromwell House, Highgate, Monograph 12, London Survey Committee, London (1926).

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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