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A pine and composition chimney piece in the Adam tradition, late 19th century. The rectangular shelf with squared edges decorated with guilloche,
the frieze centred by a moulded tablet itself centred by a classical
draped urn supported by sphinx with leafy scrolled tails and flanked
by ribbon tied garlands of flowers and paterae divided by leaf and
drapery mouldings, the jambs in the form of pairs of classical
columns with leaf capitals headed by draped urns with ram’s head
handles within moulded panels all raised on squared bases.
Composition was said to have been invented by a Swiss clergyman named Liardet and is a mixture of whiting, resin and size, heated and mixed together. This quick method of decoration was favoured by Robert Adam, amongst others, who entrusted the carving of wooden moulds of his own design to George Jackson who later founded a factory in Rathbone Place, London. This chimney piece reflects numerous references to the genius of Robert Adam and his Neo-Classical movement of the 1770s.
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