Georgian chimney-piece restoration

This was a particularly intriguing project. The chimney-piece was damaged by inexperienced handling, but it was apparent from the start that the sculptural elements of the chimney-piece illustrated in the pre-restoration photograph were Georgian with later, probably early 20th century, extensions to the sides and a new shelf and plinth blocks.

Research undertaken by Melluish & Davis revealed that the Georgian elements were derived from designs by George Richardson ( d 1813) who worked closely with the Adam Brothers, the leading late 18th century architects and decorators. Richardson travelled to Italy with James Adam on his Grand Tour from 1760-3 and afterwards is known to have worked in the Adams London Office as a draughtsman but by the mid 1760s he had separated from the Adams and set up on his own but predominantly worked on interior detail. He published an extensive number of books of architectural details including, ‘A New Collection of Chimney-pieces, Ornamented in the Style of the Etrufcan, Greek, and Roman Architecture’, published in 1781 which contains thirty six engraved designs.

One of these designs number three, (see far right image below) “fuitable for a handfome drawing-room” is of particular relevance to this chimney-piece for the pilasters on each jamb and the canopied calyx on the blockings above clearly follow Richardson’s design exactly. The blockings and pilasters are identical to the marble original, whilst the treatment of the frieze is closely related but differently ornamented.

The possibility of re-carving the missing elements, including the shelf, pilaster capitals, ingrounds and architrave mouldings to match Richardson’s design was discussions with the client’s representative, but it was eventually decided to retain the 20th century elements, thereby retaining part of the chimney-pieces history. Regrettably attempts to discover the provenance of the chimney-piece proved fruitless, although there remains a possibility that this chimney-piece originally decorated one of the rooms of the London town house of Lord Curzon who incorporated one of Richardson’s designs for a chimney-piece within his Country house, Keddleston Hall in Derbyshire. 

Before (click image to enlarge)	Repaired and installed (click image to enlarge)	George Richardson design for a chimney-piece, 1781. (click image to enlarge)