A fine and rare George II white marble chimneypiece in the manner of William Kent and possibly executed by the workshop of Peter Scheemakers circa 1740

By repute Ranton Abbey House, Staffordshire;
T. Crowther & Son, London;
Sold Sotheby's New York, October 21-22, 1999, lot 450

Chimneypiece is beautifully carved with exquisite details. Some minor chips to edges and corners throughout, many of them old and with worn edges. Part of the bunch of grapes to the left jamb is lacking, not immediately visible. Patch to inner bottom corner of left jamb. Light surface scratches and small abrasions and chips. While the carved and molded pieces all appear to be period, some of the uncarved supporting elements, including a side of one jamb, appear to be later.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The unsubstantiated provenance for this exquisite chimneypiece is fascinating. Ranton Abbey House along with Shugborough Hall, Staffordshire was a property of the Anson family, although a later acquisition from the early 19th century, the connection with them is important.

Thomas Anson (1695-1773) was a wealthy aesthete and in 1740 completed his own Grand Tour in Europe. Anson was a founder member of the Society of Dilettanti in 1732, their aim was to promote the study of Greek and Roman art and promote new work in this style.

From his inheritance in 1720 he invested heavily in his estates and transformed Shugborough and created a London townhouse Litchfield House in St James's. Like Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington (1694–1753) and William Kent (1685–1748) he developed a solid working relationship with his favored architect James 'Athenian' Stuart (1713-1788) and the artists and craftsman Stuart patronized. Over the course of time the Anson family altered many of their family possessions, commissioning extensive work at Shugborough from Samuel Wyatt. It would not be unreasonable to assume that furnishings and architectural elements were moved around. Interestingly in 1842 due to debt, most of the contents of both Shugborough Hall and Litchfield House were sold by Thomas William Anson, 1st Earl of Litchfield and after a period in Europe he returned to England choosing Ranton Abbey House as his home and where what remained of the family collections was consolidated.

There is a chimneypiece worthy of comparison which was commissioned for Shugborough in 1748 which is still in the Drawing Room there. It is by Peter Scheemakers (1692-1781) who produced a body of work for Anson. Like the offered lot it is of superior quality, finely executed in white marble, has a rigid architectural frame which includes leaf carved borders and a frieze of egg and dart with festoons and pendants of fruit and foliage. See Susan Weber Soros (ed.), James "Anthenian" Stuart, The Rediscovery of Antiquity, New York, 2006, p. 563.

Whilst the execution may possibly be Scheemakers hand or his workshop the actual design seems removed from the work of James Stuart, the vocabulary employed seems to relate to other designers working in the 1730s and 1740s.

Scheemakers had a working relationship with one of the most important designers of the period William Kent for whom he executed a design for the tomb of Shakespeare at Westminster Abbey in 1740. The chimneypiece designed by William Kent in the Octagon Room at Chiswick House, London, circa 1726-29, and another for Devonshire House, London, circa 1735 relate to the offered lot as they both feature jambs headed by cherub heads and similar architectural borders are employed. 

John Vardy, illustrates a preliminary design for this type of chimneypiece in Some Designs of Mr Inigo Jones and Mr. William Kent, 1744, pI. 13. This is similar to a design (the herms in profile) by Jones for the room next to the back stairs (the present North-West Cabinet Room) in the Queen's House, Greenwich; see J. Harris and G. Higgot, Inigo Jones Complete Architectural Drawings, New York, 1989, p. 228, fig. 72.

In 1739, William Jones (fl. 1737, d. 1757), architect of the Rotunda in Ranelagh Gardens and later Surveyor of the East India Company published The Gentleman or Builders Companion, containing variety of useful Designs for Doors, Gateways, Peers, Pavilions, Temples, Chimney-Pieces & c... Included is a design for a chimneypiece and overmantel in the Palladian style, pI. 23, the shelf is of similar inverted breakfront form, the jambs almost identical and carved with a cherub head with leafy collar above a swag and pendant and ending in a block foot; see E. White, Pictorial Dictionary of British 18th Century Furniture Design, Woodbridge, 1990, p. 362, fig. 23.