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DECORATIVE ARTS AND DESIGN HISTORY


Special Collections Material


From John Buckler's Views of Eaton Hall in Cheshire (1826)
Sp Coll s4-a.10

"The Drawing-room is of the same form and dimensions as the Dining-room, having a similar bay-window, and four magnificent niches.  A noble window, with a lofty pointed arch and richly formed tracery, adorned with painted glass, appears at the end opposite the entrance, and commands a distant and pleasing landscape, of which a bold and lengthened sweep of water is the most prominent ornament.  The ceiling is adorned with compartments numerously subdivided, and intricately intersected.  The pattern is formed in four divisions issuing from clustered pillars, with foliated capitals, and united in the middle to an hexagonal frame, which is beautifully reticulated, and distinguished by a pendant of foliage, which sustains a large crystal chandelier.  The beauty of the ceiling is increased by the number and variety of its carved knots and foliage; but its most prominent embellishments are shields, emblazoned with the arms of the various branches of the Grosvenor family.  This pattern is partly transferred to the carpet, the colour of which forms an agreeable medium, between the general pale hue of the ceiling, and the superb glow of the crimson velvet, with which the walls are covered.

The Furniture of this Room corresponds in costly embellishment with its Architecture.  Blue satin, fringed with yellow silk, crimson velvet and damask satin, compose the draperies, and line the chairs and sofas; the frames of which, and also the tables, are carved in different but consistent Gothic forms, and either entirely gilt, or variegated with mahogany or rose wood, inlaid with polished brass."

(Page 3)

 

Pellat & Green's show room
Eaton Hall - Drawing Room.
(Plate 13: Drawn on stone by J.D. Harding from a drawing by J.C. Buckler)

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