Sally Jeffery, ‘’s Chimneypieces for the Duchess of Buccleuch’, The Georgian Group Journal, Vol. XXIV, 2016, pp. 1–22

text © the authors 2016 Grinling Gibbons’s Chimneypieces for the Duchess of Buccleuch

s a l ly j e f f e r y

Grinling Gibbons (1648–1721) is particularly famous do not survive, while others, known from proposals, for the limewood carvings with which he began his were never carried out.1 This article looks at the career. From the later 1670s, however, he produced records of these chimneypieces and compares them carving in stone and marble in various forms, and with various commissions undertaken by Gibbons and these materials came to dominate his output after his assistants for Ann Scott, Duchess of Monmouth the turn of the century. He designed chimneypieces and Buccleuch (1651–1732) for her castle at Dalkeith in mixed materials from the mid 1680s, sometimes in Scotland. Documents in the National Records of working in collaboration with other artisans, but Scotland give new and interesting details about their they are less extensively discussed than his other work, commissioning, and also about Gibbons’s yard in probably because some of the most important examples .

Fig. 1. Dalkeith Castle, rebuilt to the designs of James Smith (c.1645–1731) 1702–11. (photo: author)

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he Duchess of Buccleuch first employed The Duchess was born at the castle of Dalkeith, TGibbons when she was married to the Duke of Midlothian, south-east of Edinburgh. She inherited Monmouth, eldest illegitimate son of Charles II. A it in 1661 at the age of ten, but left for England new house at Moor Park in Hertfordshire was being before her marriage in 1663. After the death of her built for them from 1679 to 1688 to designs attributed second husband in 1698 she began to considering to ;2 the name ‘Grinling Gibbons Carver’ returning to her family home. Her ‘old Castle’, as appears on a list of craftsmen working there in she called it, needed considerable improvement, a 1682 with a payment of £65.3 Exactly what he did task which was placed in the hands of James Smith to Moor Park is not known, but a visitor in 1728 (c.1645–1731), who produced designs which involved remarked on the ‘exceeding fine Wood Carving’ in the rebuilding of a large part of it. The building the Great Dining Room, which perhaps provides an account, carefully kept by the steward, begins in June indication.4 1701 with ‘pulling down the Old Castle’, and work A London house for the Duke of Monmouth in continued intensively over the next decade (Fig. 1).8 Soho Square was begun in 1682, but although the The Duchess left for Scotland in September of 1701, Duke was reported as using it in 1683, it was never but throughout the summer months of that year, completely finished. The sculptor Joseph Nollekens and for a number of years after her arrival, quantities and his biographer J.T. Smith visited it in 1773 of fittings and furniture, both new and old and when it was about to be demolished, and described including chimneypieces, were packed up at the a chimneypiece richly ornamented with fruit and house in Soho Square, and transported by sea and foliage, ‘similar to the carvings which surrounded the land to Scotland.9 altar of St James’s Church, , so beautifully The Duchess maintained close contact with executed by Grinling Gibbons’.5 Few accounts Smith before she left, and doubtless continued this survive and the names of only some of the craftsmen practice when she had arrived, participating actively are known, but ‘carving’ is mentioned, so perhaps in the details of building and decoration, especially Gibbons was called on to work there as well as at of the interiors. The complex chimneypieces erected Moor Park.6 at Dalkeith, as will be seen, were often composed of In 1685 the Duke of Monmouth was executed for separate elements not necessarily designed together. his rebellion against his uncle King James II. After Some parts were the work of Gibbons, but the design his death, the Duchess regained ownership of Moor of the finished works presumably resulted from Park and continued to live there, using the title of discussion between the Duchess and her architect. Duchess of Buccleuch; she remarried in 1688, but While preparations were being made for her retained the title until she died. There are no known departure, the Duchess visited Grinling Gibbons records of any building or decorating activity until on several occasions. On 4 July 1701, two shillings about 1700, but the Duchess was no doubt aware were paid for her to go by coach ‘to Mr. Gibbons & of contemporary interiors, and especially those of back abt. Marble’ and she made another visit on 6 the royal palaces at Windsor, Whitehall, Hampton July ‘to Mr. Gibbons’.10 Gibbons and his wife were Court and Kensington. She had known Princess living then at a house called The King’s Arms in Bow Mary as a young girl before her marriage to William Street, Covent Garden, where he displayed his work of Orange, and had visited her in the Netherlands. and perhaps had a small workshop, so possibly the She remained in contact with them as King William Duchess went there on her first two visits.11 Then and Queen Mary, and the Queen dined at Moor Park on 24 July she took a coach-ride costing one shilling in 1693.7 to ‘Hungerford’, accompanied by her steward,

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Benjamin Robinson, and a Mr Fowkes, in order ‘to made free of the Drapers’ Company.17 Mention is go over ye Water’, and two shillings were paid to the made of his assistants from 1678 onwards, when he watermen to take them ‘to Mr Gibbons Yard waiting was working at ; among the most & back againe’.12 Watermen or water-taxis plied their important were Arnold Luellan (Arnold Quellin, trade regularly from Hungerford Stairs, on the north 1653–86) and John Oastes (John Nost or van Ost, bank of the Thames near the present Hungerford d.1710).18 Gibbons was in partnership with Quellin Bridge, but where ‘over the water’ did they go? from 1681 until May 1683, and then again from George Vertue recorded that at the beginning 1685 to 1686 when Quellin died.19 Just before his of his career Gibbons ‘settled with his Family at death, Quellin worked with Gibbons on the marble Detford and follow’d ship carving’, so he may have altarpiece for the chapel at Whitehall Palace.20 John had a yard at initially.13 The records of Nost was noted as ‘foreman’ to Quellin in the year the Drapers’ Company give him as ‘of Ludgate he died, by which time there were ‘fifty workmen or Hill’ from 1672, and his address is also noted as soe many Marblers, Sculptors, Sawyers, Pollishers La Belle Sauvage, a coaching inn on the north of & Labourers’ working on the chapel.21 Gibbons’s Ludgate Hill, where he was apparently based at parents were English, but he was born and raised in that time and may have had a yard. But by 1678 Rotterdam, and it is no surprise to find that many he was also recorded as living in a house in Bow of these fellow-carvers in wood and stone were from Street, Covent Garden, which he retained until his the Netherlands. Their exact relationship to him, death.14 The Ludgate Hill address only remained however, especially after the death of Quellin, is not in use until 1684, suggesting that he then moved his clear. Gibbons certainly remained in contact with yard elsewhere, perhaps to cope with his expanding Nost, since they were frequently employed on the business. Since he was living near the Strand, same projects, but the volume of work meant that he departure by boat from Hungerford Stairs (on the must have continued to maintain an extensive yard north bank of the river Thames, also near the Strand) with a number of assistants, some of whom would to a yard on the south bank would have been very have been involved in his commissions from the convenient for him. Watermen plied regularly from Duchess of Buccleuch. Hungerford and had an agreed ‘Table of Rates’: a The Duchess’s visits to Gibbons probably shilling to Lambeth, Vauxhall, or ‘White-hart Stairs’ relate to the completion of a commission for marble (just south of Lambeth Palace) or two shillings chimneypieces dated July 1701. His bill of that date for a return trip .15 This suggests that although the is for £74 6s. for seven chimneypieces ‘for Scotland’, exact location is not known, the yard was indeed and was receipted on 11 August 1701. These were on the south bank of the river in the area between simple fire surrounds in a variety of marbles, and Southwark and Lambeth, where there were many ranged in price according to size from £6 to £12.22 such business premises. Customs charges were listed on 31 July 1701 for seven As Gibbons’s work increased, he needed ‘Chimney pieces & Window Boards’.23 They were apprentices and assistants, particularly for carving then carried by the Crowne of Leith, commanded by in stone. Vertue reported that although Gibbons ‘Skipper Whyte’, in the very first shipment of goods was ‘a most excellent Carver in Wood he was neither bound for Scotland.24 well skilld or practized in Marble or in Brass, for The Duchess had written in a letter (probably which works he imployd the best Artists he could in 1701): ‘I am so near Edn. [Edinburgh] at Dalkeith procure’.16 A number of apprentices were named that I shall need no lodgens in town’.25 But the over the years, starting in 1672 when Gibbons was castle at Dalkeith was a building site in 1701, and

t h e g e o r g i a n g r o u p j o u r n a l v o l u m e x x i v  g r i n l i n g g i b b o n s ’ s chimneypieces f o r t h e d u c h e s s o f b u c c l e u c h living there would not have been comfortable or a pair of covings, boxes and fixing up, for which appropriate. The new part was not roofed until 1705, £80 was paid by the Duchess’s steward.27 Gibbons and work continued until at least 1711. The Duchess was therefore supplying a marble fire surround with therefore took lodgings in Edinburgh, at first in a relief panel above, with base and cornice. The Mylne’s Square and later in Parliament Close where wording of the bill indicates that the pieces were furniture and fittings were installed for her.26 There delivered to Moor Park and fixed up there. Whether are a number of chimneypieces at Dalkeith with it was always planned to take the chimneypiece down simple mouldings and in various marbles, but the and remove it to Scotland is not known, but the dimensions and the number of window seats do not description of the relief does strongly suggest that it match Gibbons’s list. It therefore seems likely that was the one later installed at Dalkeith. the seven chimneypieces supplied by Gibbons in A pair of closets on the principal or first floor at 1701 were installed in the lodgings in Edinburgh. Dalkeith – called the Great Closet and the Picture A further commission was given to Gibbons in Closet – were at the junction of the state apartment the summer of 1701. A bill from him dated June 1701 and that of the Duchess, and were among the most lists ‘Work don for her Grace ye Dutches of Buckleu elaborately decorated rooms in the whole building at More-Parke’. This was for a marble bas-relief (Fig. 2). Carving and gilding in the Great Closet was illustrating the story of Neptune and Galatea, a being done in 1703–4, and the room was hung with marble base, cornice, slips, a new fire ‘hart’ or hearth, red velvet ‘flowr’d with gold’ which had been sent

Fig. 2. Plan of the first or entrance floor of Dalkeith Castle, showing the position of the Great Closet, Picture Closet and Lodge Low, from William Adam, Vitruvius Scoticus, 1812, pl.23.

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Fig. 3. Chimneypiece in the Great Closet at Dalkeith Castle. (photo: Wyndham Westerdale) from London in 1703.28 It contains one of the most Duchess’s coroneted monogram, and scrolls. These elaborate chimneypieces (Fig. 3), of which the relief appear to be made up of pieces of polished clear of Neptune and Galatea is a prominent part (Fig. 4). glass backed with silvering and gilding, and finely The bolection-moulded fire surround and the simple engraved with ribbons, leaves and flowers.29 Since frame for the relief are of the Belgian red marble the composition was made up of separate elements, known as Rance, which is variegated white and red- it was evidently not designed as a whole by Gibbons, brown veined with ash-white and blue. Above, also but was rather put together at Dalkeith. It no doubt in a frame of the same marble, is an elaborate blue reflected the taste and wishes of the Duchess. glass panel overlaid with silvered palm leaves, the Documents recording the arrival of Captain

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Fig. 4. Grinling Gibbons: Relief of Neptune and Galatea on the chimneypiece in the Great Closet, Dalkeith Castle. (photo: Wyndham Westerdale)

Baptie’s ship in Leith on 22 July 1703 mention ‘5 glass is very fine, and it seems likely that it was also Bo:[boxes] marbel used in Murr [Moor] park’, a table, made in London, but no documents have been found saddles, papers and soap.30 They had to be surveyed, to give a clue to its maker. and then the customs paid and the goods carried Forerunners of chimneypieces of this kind away; the Duchess’s steward, Benjamin Robinson, occur in earlier work by Gibbons for the royal spent 19s. 8d. on a treat, or tip, for the customs officers palaces of King William and Queen Mary, under the who did not open the strong box nor charge ‘custome surveyorship of Sir . Particularly for ye Marble’. This shipment has been linked to interesting in this context are the chimneypieces in a the Gibbons relief which had previously been at combination of luxurious materials and techniques Moor Park, but the documents do not mention it, for the new building at Whitehall Palace near the and it is impossible to be sure when it arrived since riverside, made in 1688–9, and all destroyed by the there were many other shipments.31 Then in April fire of 1698.34 Traditionally, it was the masons who 1704, there was another bill from Scottish customs provided the mouldings of the fire surround in stone on goods arriving at Leith in Captain Dalrimple’s or marble, and they did so here while the ornamental ship, and a charge for surveying them once delivered elements were provided by carvers. The mason to Dalkeith. It mentions ‘Glass & Marble yt. were Edward Strong provided an Egyptian marble fire not safe to be surveyd at Leith for fear of breakeing’, surround for the Queen’s Drawing Room for £29,35 and a note below identifies the consignment as ‘The and for the same room Gibbons made ‘2 Marble Great Glass & Marble Frame for ye Great Closset’.32 figures as big as the Life a Crowne and Cushion These items evidently refer to the glass and its frame and a pedistall over the chimny’ for £180. He also above the chimneypiece. The record that the masons billed £60 for ‘carving the wooden chimny peice’ for were setting up the marble and carved glass of the this room.36 These accounts all confusingly refer to chimneypiece in May 1704 fits well with this.33 The ‘chimneypieces’ without being precise about where

t h e g e o r g i a n g r o u p j o u r n a l v o l u m e x x i v  g r i n l i n g g i b b o n s ’ s chimneypieces f o r t h e d u c h e s s o f b u c c l e u c h the various elements were placed. For the Queen’s Great Bedchamber, Gibbons made ‘a Baserleave [bas relief] of Galleth in marble, cornice and base over the ... chimny’ for £60, and ‘2 Marble Boyes and cornucopes and ___ over the said chimnypeice’ for £50, and a carved ‘Chimny peice in Wood’ for £55. Here too marble and wood must have been used in conjunction, perhaps with the relief immediately above the fire surround. ‘Galleth’ has been read as ‘Goliath’, but ‘Galatea’ is more likely both because of the spelling and because Gibbons used this subject again for the Duchess of Buccleuch.37 Such complex chimneypieces were illustrated in a number of drawn proposals firmly attributed to Gibbons and of the period 1689–94, probably for Hampton Court or (Fig. 5).38 They were for colourful floor-to-ceiling structures – later called continued or extended chimneypieces – comprising the fire surrounds themselves, sometimes flanked and surmounted by carvings or sculpture in marble or stone, and overmantels which could include reliefs, putti and other figures, some very large, and ornaments in a variety of materials such as marble and wood, which might be gilded or painted.39 These designs in mixed materials were probably intended to be executed by several different artisans. They give an idea of what had been achieved at Whitehall and also of how taste in form, colour and ornament had been evolving since the 1620s, particularly in France. There, the fire opening was often framed with a rounded moulding. The chimneypiece could be constructed of different Fig. 5. Grinling Gibbons, attrib.: Design for a continued materials with a variety of carving and sculpture. A chimneypiece, probably for Hampton Court, c.1689–94. drawing produced in France before 1643 provides (By courtesy of the Trustees of Sir John Soane’s an early illustration (Fig. 6), and suites of engravings Museum. Hampton Court Album, volume 110/35) subsequently made these ideas widely available.40 Such printed sources were used in England before the Civil Wars, in particular by , some of whose designs for the Queen’s House draw on engraved designs by Jean Barbet.41 Life-size figures of Mars and Minerva in painted plaster, probably of the late 1630s, flank the overmantel on the chimneypiece

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Fig. 6. Unknown artist: Design for a chimneypiece with royal attributes on the overmantel, French, before 1643, from a book of designs bequeathed by James Gibbs. (© Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, Cotelle Album WA1925.298.5)

of the Great Hall at Ham House,42 and engravings 1684. The influence of these designs is very apparent produced by Jean Le Pautre and others in the 1660s in the chimneypieces for the royal palaces of the show designs with such large figures, perhaps 1680s and 1690s, and in those erected at Dalkeith. resembling those described at Whitehall (Fig. 7). One other possible influence should be So-called Dutch designs often incorporated shelves considered. Daniel Marot (1661–1752) trained as a for the display of porcelain. Those referred to as à designer at the French court and knew of the latest l’Italienne often use bolection mouldings. Those with developments there, but as a Huguenot he had panels of glass, which were expensive and difficult to to leave France in 1686. He entered the service of produce, were referred to as à la française and began William and Mary at Het Loo in Holland, where he to appear after mirror glass was used in quantity in contributed to the design of the interiors and the large cast plates instead of blown glass at Versailles by garden. He probably came to England soon after

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Fig. 7. Jean Le Pautre, attrib: Design for a chimneypiece, c.1660. (Victoria &Albert Museum, London, 17531)

1688 in their service. One drawing for the garden In the event, Gibbons’s designs were not used at at Hampton Court is dated 1689, and he is likely Hampton Court. Work on the new royal apartments to have been involved in other designs, but details took place from 1689 to 1694. They stopped when of his stay and his work in England are not well Queen Mary died, and then continued from 1697 documented, and he was back in Amsterdam in to 1699. In the earlier stages of fitting out, the fire 1697.43 Most of his engraved chimneypiece designs surrounds were made by the masons, as had been did not appear until the first years of the eighteenth the custom, while Gibbons and other carvers century. They may record the his earlier work, but provided limewood decorations for the overmantels, in any case the chimneypieces for the Duchess of overdoors and architectural ornament. But there Buccleuch at Dalkeith of the early eighteenth century were also elaborate creations in mirror glass in the seem to indicate a knowledge of them.44 new taste by Gerard Johnson (Gerrit Jensen, d.1715),

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Fig. 8. John Nost: Chimneypiece, 1699, originally intended for the King’s Great Bedchamber, , but now in the Queen’s Gallery. (© Historic Royal Palaces).

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Fig. 9. Chimneypiece, 1699, in the King’s Great Fig. 10. Pierre Bullet: Design for a chimneypiece, Bedchamber, Hampton Court Palace. Fire surround by Verschyde schoorsteen mantels nieulykx geinventeert door John Nost, overmantel glass by Gerrit Jensen (Gerard Mr. Bullet etc., architect du roy, Amsterdam, c.1675–86, Johnson), carved limewood drops by Grinling Gibbons. Dutch reverse copy from Livre nouveau de Cheminées. (© Historic Royal Palaces). (Victoria &Albert Museum, London, 24843.8) published by Le Pautre and copied by Bullet and mantelshelf supported by gilded brass female others (Fig. 10). heads. Below is a white marble panel with a relief, While Gibbons undertook wood carving in the referred to in the accounts as a ‘frieze of the triumph King’s Gallery (now the Cartoon Gallery), Nost of Venus’, although it actually appears to show supplied a marble chimneypiece for it, also listed Galatea. The whole cost £235.48 John Nost had, as in his account of 1699 (Fig. 11). The surround is already noted, worked at Windsor in the 1670s, and in veined purple marble, with black pilasters and with Quellin in the 1680s, and therefore had had

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Fig. 11. John Nost: Chimneypiece, 1699, in the King’s Gallery (now the Cartoon Gallery), Hampton Court Palace. (© Historic Royal Palaces)

frequent contact with Gibbons. They were possibly grottoes, fountains and other garden buildings. She still collaborating at Hampton Court, although they was often shown travelling on the sea in a shell drawn billed for work separately. The marble relief in the by dolphins, holding a light scarf over her head as King’s Gallery is the only instance at Hampton Court a kind of sail, and with putti around her. She can where such a feature is used, but reliefs occur in usually be identified by her scarf, but is sometimes some of Gibbons’s drawings in the Hampton Court mistaken for Venus, who was often shown emerging Album, and he must have known Nost’s work. In from the sea on a shell. Sometimes, the attributes of its original form, the chimneypiece with the carved the two were merged and confused, and in the studio relief of Neptune and Galatea which he delivered of Nost this seems to have been the case. to the Duchess of Buccleuch at Moor Park in 1701 At Kensington Palace, work on extending old probably resembled this one by Nost.49 Nottingham House for William and Mary began in The mythological story of Galatea, the sea- 1689. It continued with a break until 1696, and then nymph who attended Neptune, was used frequently resumed in 1702 for Queen Anne and afterwards by artists and sculptors in the seventeenth century. for George I. Gibbons charged at first for his wood Since her name meant ‘she who is milk-white’, she carving with Nicholas Alcock and William Emmett, was particularly appropriate for an image carved and their bills are not very detailed, but from 1691 in white marble, and for watery settings such as they billed separately.50 Gibbons then included

t h e g e o r g i a n g r o u p j o u r n a l v o l u m e x x i v   g r i n l i n g g i b b o n s ’ s chimneypieces f o r t h e d u c h e s s o f b u c c l e u c h details of a novel type of carved ornament which which the masons had supplied the purple marble reflected the growing taste for mirror glass. His work fire surrounds for £40.52 These two magnificent consisted of carved wood overlaid on mirror glass or chimneypieces survive, although the overmantels another ground. He provided two overmantels for are evidently much less richly ornamented than £70, one on a glass ground and one on a gold ground, originally and are said to be much restored.53 They for the Queen’s Closet and her Dressing Room.51 are in three parts: the fire surround, a frieze of panels For the Queen’s Gallery, he made overdoor carvings of mirror glass with a mantelshelf above, and then ‘on 4 Glasses’ with festoons and foliage and other plates of mirror glass overlaid with gilded wood. The ornaments at £10 each, and ‘2 Chimney peices [in mirror glass plates were originally made to appear fact overmantels] in Wood on Glasse’ at £25 each, for as a single large glass but are now held in place by

Fig. 12. Chimneypiece, 1691–2, in the Queen’s Gallery, Fig. 13. The Queen’s Gallery, Kensington Palace, from Kensington Palace. Fire surround by Thomas Hill, William Henry Pyne, The History of the Royal Residences mirror glasses by Gerrit Jensen, carved limewood vol.II (London: A Dry, 1819), opposite p. 67. decoration by Grinling Gibbons, gilding by René Cousine. (© Historic Royal Palaces) (© Historic Royal Palaces)

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Fig. 14. Daniel Marot: Design for a chimneypiece with mirror glass, Nouvelle [sic] Cheminées a Panneaux de Glace a la maniere de France, c.1712–16 from Das Ornamentwerk des Daniel Marot (Berlin: Ernst Wasmuth, 1892), p. 133. (Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 48.B.48)

glazing bars (Fig. 12). The glasses themselves cost £80 Panneaux de Glace a la manière de France, published in August 1691 and were supplied by Gerrit Jensen, in c.1712–16 (Fig. 14). as at Hampton Court, and the gilding was by René The Duchess of Buccleuch’s steward, Benjamin Cousins; the full original effect can be seen in an Robinson, was in Holland and London in the illustration by Pyne (Fig. 13). Such combinations with autumn of 1704, buying various goods for Dalkeith. the use of mirror glass appear to have been inspired While there, he went with ‘Mr Moore’ and others directly by examples at Versailles, particularly in the ‘to Hampton Court to see furnishing & staires, & Chambre du Roi of 1684;54 they were subsequently to severall other houses aboute London’.55 James illustrated in numerous engravings, such as those Moore (c.1670–1726), cabinet maker, had supplied by Daniel Marot showing Nouvelle Cheminées a and repaired furniture for Dalkeith before the

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Duchess’s departure, and continued to do so over a The most complex and elaborate chimneypiece number of years.56 He seems to have been a trusted at Dalkeith was originally in the bedchamber at adviser, and at Hampton Court he and Robinson the end of the west pavilion on the principal floor. would have seen the carving on chimneypieces The furnishings, according to the 1756 inventory, by Gibbons and Nost, and also the magnificent were lavish and included a silk damask bed and a ornamented glasses by Jensen. Their visit suggests ‘great looking glass with blue flowers’.60 There are that only items of extremely high quality were being photographs of the chimneypiece in situ in 1911, commissioned. when the room was known as ‘Lodge Low’, but it Robinson was in London again in 1706, was later removed and set up in Drumlanrig Castle, transacting business for the Duchess and the family’s seat in Dumfriesshire (Fig. 15). The commissioning items for Dalkeith.57 He was in touch chimney surround is of marble described as ‘dove once more with James Moore, who was visited, grey veined red’ with a simple bolection moulding, consulted and taken on a visit to Buckingham House and strips of white marble each side. Above this is a ‘abt. ye Stairs’.58 This time there were recorded mirror glass framed in the same veined marble, with contacts with Grinling Gibbons. A porter was paid a beautiful carved surround in white marble. The two shillings on 25 May to go ‘to Mr Gibbans & Mr. topmost part consists of a cresting and two drops Moor’, and on the same day there was a payment of ten shillings for ‘Wateridge at times to ye. Marble wharffe, to see ye worke go on’. This amount must have represented several visits, presumably to Gibbons’s yard on the south bank of the Thames. Then on 26 June there were expenses of ten shillings ‘with Mr. Gibbons & Moor’, and two days later, ‘Wateridge with Mr. Gibbans, & to ye Custome house, & back in a Coach...’ costing three shillings and sixpence. Robinson went to Scotland Yard, where there was a dock, on 2 August. He paid for ‘Shiping Goods’, the use of a ‘Crain wheel’ and porters. On 3 August he ‘Gave the Searchers at ye Custome house by Mr. Hunts Advice 3½ guineas’, and also tipped the ship’s crew. All of this indicates a large and heavy shipment probably including Gibbons’s work. The accounts for July to September 1706 include two payments to Gibbons, not dated individually. The first is very specifically for123 £ 7s. to: ‘Mr: Gibbons Carver for Marble Chimney to Dalk[eith]’; the second is for £70, noted as ‘another Accot. since’. There is also a third payment Fig. 15. Chimneypiece from Lodge Low, Dalkeith Castle, to Gibbons of £13 10s., noted as ‘more in ffeb: now at Drumlanrig Castle. Carved marble mirror surround 59 1706/7’. It is not possible to identify positively the and carved limewood drops and cresting attributed to commissions to which these payments refer, but the Grinling Gibbons. (© Courtesy of Historic Environment following are suggestions. Scotland. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk)

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Fig. 16. Great Antechamber, Dalkeith Castle, photographed 1911, with marble chimneypiece, door architraves and tables. (© Courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland. Licensor canmore.org.uk)

in carved limewood around a picture frame. The to fitting the overmantel, and no payment related carving in both wood and marble are of a very high specifically to wood carving. By this time, the taste order, and almost certainly came from Gibbons’s for overmantels in carved wood was waning, so shop but they may not have originally been perhaps this ornament was brought from Moor Park intended to go together.61 As in the Great Closet, and fitted later. Two further entries in Robinson’s the chimneypiece shows evidence of having been accounts for January to March 1707, one for customs pieced together to form this composition, but we can paid at Leith on the ‘Carved Marble’ and another for only speculate about how this happened. The drops ‘Custome of Chimney peices’ could refer to this or have been trimmed to fit where they meet the carved any of the following chimneypieces.63 marble, which sits slightly uncomfortably around the The progress of the work in the Great mirror glass above the rather small fire surround. Antechamber coincides well with the arrival in Leith The mason’s account for Dalkeith for February in July 1706 in ‘Captain Grayes Ship’ of ‘Marble 1707 includes an item for setting ‘the Carved Marble for the Antychamber, Glasses & China &c.’.64 The in the West Pavilion first storie’ which probably detailed list for the consignment included one box refers to the fitting out of this room, and which could with ‘a marbell Chimney pieces’ [sic], three boxes marry well with the payment of £123 for a ‘marble containing marble, one containing two ‘Large Looking chimney’ of September the previous year and/or the Glassess’ and another with one large looking glass. further payment of £70.62 But there is no reference This important room at the beginning of the state

t h e g e o r g i a n g r o u p j o u r n a l v o l u m e x x i v   g r i n l i n g g i b b o n s ’ s chimneypieces f o r t h e d u c h e s s o f b u c c l e u c h apartment does indeed contain a fire surround of shipped in September 1706 in Captain Philips’ ship, grey marble with a marble picture frame above, with with even more marble (Fig. 16).66 a simple uncarved moulding, marble window seats, The Picture Closet was the second of the richly marble door frames, and, according to the inventory of decorated pair of closets at the junction of the two 1756, there were also three marble tables with marble apartments. It was being fitted out in the summer frames, two glass sconces and two large glasses with of 1707, when the masons were setting the carved gilt frames.65 One or two of the sums noted above white marble chimneypiece there. In September they could relate to this chimneypiece and other marble installed the marble frame for the painted glass, the work in the Antechamber. The painting by Godfrey frieze with a carved monogram ‘AB’, a coronet and Kneller of the Duchess with her two sons, which was palm branches, and a large cornice (Fig. 17). Work installed in the marble frame over the chimney, was continued into 1708.68 Several such compositions,

Fig. 17. Chimneypiece in the Picture Closet, Dalkeith Castle. Carved marble fire surround possibly by Grinling Gibbons or his shop, painted overmantel mirror attributed to Jacob Bogdani (James Bugdane). (photo: David Wrightson)

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Fig. 18. Daniel Marot: Design for a chimneypiece with mirror glass and painted ornament, Nouvelle [sic] Cheminées a Panneaux de Glace a la maniere de France, c.1712–16 from Das Ornamentwerk des Daniel Marot (Berlin: Ernst Wasmuth, 1892), p. 136. (Victoria &Albert Museum, London, 48.B.48)

either painted on mirror glass or other grounds, for Moore parke with Flowers &c. by me James were illustrated by Daniel Marot in his suite of Bogdane’ is dated 15 August 1701, and there are bills engravings Nouvelle Cheminées a Panneaux de for their carriage to Moor Park.67 The Duchess knew Glace a la maniere de France published in c.1712–16 at that point that she was moving to Scotland, so it (Fig. 18). They relate in composition to both the seems possible that they were destined to be sent chimneypieces in the Great Closet and the Picture north; the glass in the Picture Closet may be one of Closet. The mirror glass in the overmantel, which them. Robinson also paid a visit to ‘Mr. Bugdane is painted with flowers in an urn and scrolling ye Painter’ on 27 July 1706 when he was in London acanthus, is attributed to James Bugdane or Jacob which would suggest another commission, but no Bogdani. He had painted three mirror glasses for subsequent payments appear in the accounts. the Duchess before she left for Scotland. His bill The fire surround is carved with fruit and for ‘Fifty pounds for painting three Large Glasses flowers, and may be the work of one of Gibbons’s

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Fig. 19. James Smith, architect, and his cousins James and Gilbert Smith, masons, attrib.: Chimneypiece from the Stone Hall, Dalkeith Castle, now at Bowhill. (Photo: Gareth Fitzpatrick. By kind permission of the Duke of Buccleuch & Queensberry KBE)

marble craftsmen, although it lacks finesse compared set up those which were sent from elsewhere. They to the other marble carving at Dalkeith.69 One or were also responsible for the carving on two marble more of the payments to Gibbons of 1706 could chimneypieces with what the masons referred to as relate to it, but there is also an entry in the masons’s ‘cyphers’:70 an ‘A’ with a coronet and roses in the account for sawing and cutting the marble frame Stone Hall (Fig. 19) and ‘AB’ with palm branches and for the Picture Closet. This implies that its carving a coronet in the Charter Room. although not specifically mentioned, was done in The newly-discovered details from the Scotland. It also suggests that the overall design of Buccleuch accounts provide evidence of Gibbons’s this extended chimneypiece, like the others, was workshop practice, and the existence of his yard on decided in Scotland. The masons, James Smith the south bank of the Thames in the Southwark or and his cousins, James and Gilbert, supplied a Lambeth area. They also throw light on the attention number of fire surrounds, as was traditional, and paid to the process of commissioning both by the

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Duchess herself and her steward. They suggest the illustrated in The Wren Society, vol. 4, ‘Hampton manner in which items such as chimneypieces were Court Palace, 1689–1702: original Wren drawings from the Sir John Soane’s Museum and All Souls dismantled, moved and reconfigured, no doubt collections’, plates 27–40. Some are also illustrated also under the watchful eye of the Duchess and her in Esterly,Gibbons, pp. 65, 83, 105–6. See note 38. architect, and with the help of the masons and other 2 paul Drury, Sally Jeffery and David Wrightson, craftsmen. Those surviving at Dalkeith illustrate ‘Moor Park in the Seventeenth Century’, The the new, French-inspired designs using different Antiquaries Journal, 96 (2016) (forthcoming). materials and techniques, and incorporating a variety 3 national Records of Scotland (hereafter NRS), GD 224/1059/14/1. of elements made by Gibbons and others. They 4 West Yorkshire Archive Service, WYL 115/f6/12b, make interesting comparisons with those installed at Diary of Sir Edward Gascoigne 1726–30, entry for Whitehall, Hampton Court and Kensington Palace. 14 April 1728. 5 Wilfred Whitten (ed.), John Thomas Smith, Nollekens and His Times, vol.1 (London, 1920), pp. 28–9, quoted in F.H.W. Sheppard (ed.), Survey of London, vol.33, St Anne Soho (London, acknowledgements 1966), p. 111, and Avray Tipping, Gibbons, p. 175. I would like to thank the Duke of Buccleuch and his 6 Carving is listed in ‘An Acount of workmens Bills archivist Crispin Powell at Boughton and Gareth for Work done at Monmouth House In King Square’ Fitzpatrick (now retired) for investigations in the dated 1686, Dorset History Centre, D/FSI Box Buccleuch archives and for taking photographs. 235b, bundle 1, part 1; workmen included Alexander Fort, joiner, and Robert Streeter, painter, who both I would also like to thank Andrew Martindale for worked at Moor Park (quoted in Sheppard (ed.), his considerable help in my studies of Dalkeith. Survey of London, vol. 33, op.cit. p. 107). Caroline Knight encouraged me to publish the new 7 maurice Lee, The Heiresses of Buccleuch material on Gibbons, and made a number of helpful (Phantassie, East Lothian, 1996), p. 108. The suggestions. I also wish to thank Daniel Bochman, Queen dined with the Duchess of Monmouth at Moor Park in August 1693: Cal of SP Dom 1693, Susan Bracken, Gordon Higgott, Olivia Horsfall p. 268. Turner, Treve Rosoman, Andrew Skelton, Pete 8 see John Dunbar and John Cornforth, ‘Dalkeith Smith, Joanna Swan, David Wrightson and Patty House, Lothian’, Country Life, April 19, 1984, Watters. pp. 1062–1065; April 26, 1984, pp. 1158–1161; May 3, 1984, pp. 1230–1233; Aonghus MacKechnie, Margaret Stewart and John Dunbar, Minerva’s Flame. The Great Houses of James Smith of endnotes Whitehill (c.1645–1731) Surveyor of the Royal Works, 1 his work is discussed in a series of monographs: Catalogue of an exhibition at Dalkeith Palace, July- Henry Avray Tipping, Grinling Gibbons and the August 1995 (Dalkeith, 1995); Drury, Jeffery and Woodwork of his Age (1648–1720) (London: Country Wrightson, loc.cit. Life, 1914); David Green, Grinling Gibbons. His 9 sally Jeffery, ‘From England to Scotland in 1701: Work as Carver and Statuary. 1648–1721 (London: The Duchess of Buccleuch returns to Dalkeith Country Life, 1964); Geoffrey Beard, The Work Palace’, in the proceedings of a conference entitled of Grinling Gibbons (London: John Murray, The Architecture of Scotland in its European 1989); , Grinling Gibbons and the Setting 1660–1750, held at the University of Art of Carving (London: V&A Publications, Edinburgh, 22–25 April 2015 (Edinburgh, 2016) 1998). The chimneypiece drawings are in Sir forthcoming. John Soane’s Museum, SM, vol.110, in what is 10 nrs GD 224/25/17/22. known as the Hampton Court Album, and are 11 Esterly, op.cit., p. 60.

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12 nrs GD 224/25/17/22. looking glass, which accords with Robinson’s 13 ‘The Note-books of George Vertue, Walpole description. The inventory does not give details Society, vol. 18 (Oxford, 1929–30), pp. 125–6. of chimneypieces. 14 Beard, op.cit., p. 12; Esterly, op.cit., pp. 60–61. 33 nrs GD 224/391/1/2. 15 ‘A Table of the Rates or Prices ... to be taken by 34 King’s Works, op.cit., pp. 294–95. the Watermen rowing from Place to Place upon the 35 egyptian marble is a veined green which River of Thames...’, c.1708, in The Constitutions resembles the rarer Verde antique. Nathaniel of the Company of Watermen and Lighermen, Whittock, The Decorative Paintrs’ and Glaziers’ (London, 1725), pp. 52–3. Guide (London, Issac Taylor Hinter, 1827). 16 ‘The Note-books of George Vertue, Walpole 36 tnA WORK 5/42 ff.367v, 381v, 393r. Society, vol. 26 (Oxford, 1937–8), pp. 58–9. 37 King’s Works, op.cit., pp. 294–95. 17 ingrid Roscoe, Emma Hardy and M. G. Sullivan, 38 ‘For a full discussion by Dr Gordon Higgott with A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain advice from Dr David Esterly, see the online 1660–1851 (New Haven and London, 2009) p. 513; catalogue of Sir John Soane’s Museum Drawings, Beard, op.cit., pp. 12, 18. http://collections.soane.org, in the section 18 Roscoe, op.cit., pp. 512, 1306; Beard, op.cit. p. 51; ‘Architectural & Other Drawings’, ‘English Green, op.cit., p. 54; King’s Works, op.cit., p. 320. drawings: architecture, sculpture 19 beard pp. 52–3, quoting PRO C9/415/250. and garden design’, ‘Hampton Court Palace’, 20 Roscoe, op.cit., p. 913. ‘Hampton Court Album’, accessed 19 February 21 King’s Works, op.cit., p. 290; Roscoe, op.cit., 2016. See also, Simon Thurley, Hampton Court. p. 513, quoting The National Archives (hereafter A Social and Architectural History (New Haven & TNA) WORK 5/145, ff.184–5. Haven,Yale University Press, 2003), pp. 176–181. 22 Avray Tipping , op. cit., p. 221; Buccleuch 39 hampton Court Album op.cit., illustrated in Wren archives: Bowhill; Beard, op.cit., p. 46. The Society 4, op.cit., plates 27–40. accounts for 26 August give the same amount 40 Alison Kelly, The Book of English Fireplaces of money with the entry ‘Grinling Gibbons for (London, 1968); Peter Thornton, Seventeenth- Marble Chimneys’, NRS GD224/918/45, p. 21. Century Interior Decoration in England, France & 23 nrs GD224/25/16/4. Holland (New Haven & London, 1978), pp. 62–67, 24 nrs GD224/25/19/2. 79 & plate V; Peter Thornton, Authentic Decor. 25 nrs GD26/13/359/31. The Domestic Interior 1620–1920 (London, 1984), 26 nrs GD224/25/20/52; GD224/27/2/24; pp. 48–9, plates 21–23, 38, 46–9, 58; Alastair Laing, GD224/27/6/4. ‘The Eighteenth-Century English Chimneypiece’, in 27 Avray Tipping, op.cit., p. 221; Buccleuch archives: Gervase Jackson-Stops et.al. (eds) The Fashioning Bowhill. and Functioning of the British Country House 28 nrs GD 224/27/7/39–40; GD 224/1083, Inventory (Washington, 1989), pp. 243, 244. of 1756. 41 John Harris & Gordon Higgott, Inigo Jones. 29 i am grateful to Daniel Bochman for providing Complete Architectural Drawings, (London,1989), these details. cat. nos. 68–70, 72–3, 75–6; John Harris, ‘Inigo 30 nrs GD 224/27/5/20. Jones and his French Sources’, The Metropolitcan 31 Dunbar and Cornforth, op.cit., p. 1161; another Museum of Art Bulletin, May 1961, pp. 253–264. reference to a marble shipment in 1705 is in NRS 42 the figures are attributed to Peter Besnier by GD 224/28/5/46. Charles Avery, ‘Seventeenth-Century Sculpture 32 nrs GD224/27/9/44, and GD 224/27/10/19, at Ham House’, in Christopher Rowell (ed.), Ham which speaks of glasses in the plural for the House. 400 Years of Collecting and Patronage (New Great Closett. The Dalkeith inventory of 1756 Haven & London, 2013), pp. 158–163. (NRS GD224/1083) lists a blue glass with a 43 Adam Bowett, ‘The Engravings of Daniel Marot’, ‘cypher & Crown’ which would be the one with Furniture History, 43 (2007), p. 86; Thurley, palm leaves and a coronet and monogram which op.cit., pp. 173–176. is still there, and a panel of fifteen squares of 44 Thornton 1978, op.cit., pp. 78–80.

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45 tnA WORK 5/50 f.347r. 59 nrs GD 224/918/46 p. 50; the first was noted by 46 Caroline Knight has suggested that perhaps the Beard, op.cit., p. 45. subject of love was thought unsuitable for the 60 nrs GD 224/1083. recently windowed king. 61 Dunbar and Cornforth, op.cit., p. 1230, attribute 47 tnA WORK 5/50, f.346r. the whole to Gibbons. 48 tnA WORK 5/50 f.328v. 62 nrs GD 224/391/1/5. 49 Green, pp. 124–5 and plates 172–3. 63 nrs GD 224/625/1, p. 152, Benjamin Robinson’s 50 tnA AO 1/2493/402, 1689–91. account book. 51 tnA WORK 19/48/1, Kensington Pay Book, 64 nrs GD 224/29/3/73, stated on the endorsement. March 1690/1. 65 nrs GD 224/1083. 52 tnA WORK 19/48/1, Kensington Pay Book, July 66 it was listed as ‘Her Graces and two sons pictures 1691 and March 1691/2. The overmantels were old’: NRS GD 224/29/3/76. The painting is restored after World War II and the carving was mentioned in the 1756 inventory, NRS GD224/1083, much simplified in the process. as ‘Her late Grace’s picture over the chimney and 53 Green, op.cit., p. 68. her two sons’. 54 Thornton 1978, op.cit., p. 79; Thornton 1984, 67 nrs GD 224/391/1/6, masons’s account. op.cit.,p. 53. 68 nrs GD 224/25/13/27. 55 nrs GD 224/28/1/47. 69 Dunbar and Cornforth, op.cit., p. 1161, thought it 56 Dunbar and Cornforth, op.cit., p. 1065. NRS GD was probably by Gibbons; Green, op.cit., p. 125 224/25/15/12. and plates174–5, suggests it is by John Nost. 57 nrs GD 224/29/3/84. He stayed from 6 May to 70 nrs GD 224/391/1/14, 224/391/1/3 and 4 August 1706. 224/391/1/4. 58 2 July 1706.

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