[109320] Harewood House : State Bedroom – Diana & Minerva Commode

Thomas Chippendale Senior (1718-1779).
Diana and Minerva Commode.
Satinwood, Mahogany, Marquetry, 1773.

The Diana and Minerva commode is a person of the most celebrated items of Chippendale home furniture in the globe, having its identify from the two Roman goddesses depicted in its inlaid roundels Diana, goddess of searching, and Minerva, goddess of finding out and the arts.

The structural carcass of the commode is created of oak and pine. It is embellished with marquetry – the woodworking technique of implementing distinctive sorts of veneer (skinny slices of wooden) to furniture to create ornamental styles and photographs. The commode’s track record veneer is satinwood and is inlaid with holly, ebony, ivory and tulipwood. When new, the attractive things of the veneer would have been brightly colored, owning been stained working with all-natural dyes the consequences of oxidisation (publicity to air) as very well as mild harm, have brought on the dyed woods to fade.

The Diana and Minerva commode was supplied for the Condition Dressing Space (now the Spanish Library) in November 1773. The piece is explained in Chippendale’s monthly bill in additional depth than any other merchandise in the Condition Dressing Place – ‘A very big wealthy Commode with exceeding high-quality Antique Ornaments curiously inlaid with different fine woods . . . with Diana and Minerva and their Emblems Curiously inlaid & Engraved’. The commode cost £86 and a protecting leather include was also provided for a more £1.

The central frieze drawer opens to reveal neatly fitted compartments and lidded packing containers, with primary glass cosmetic bottles and comb trays. The commode’s dressing mirror is missing.
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Point out Bedrooms have been a fashionable addition to nation properties in the 18th century even with typically staying infrequently applied. They have been reserved only for quite essential people. At Harewood the Condition Bedroom welcomed two quite well-known visitors, a young Princess Victoria in 1835 before her coronation and the Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia in 1816.

Through the Victorian interval this place was converted into a sitting down space. Chippendale’s spectacular bed was dismantled and place into storage, half forgotten, until it was rediscovered in the 1970s. It was not until 1999 that funding was located to start out the restoration task. It was a big endeavor. While much of the ornately carved and painted decoration experienced been meticulously saved, just about 150 years experienced handed and rather a good deal was lacking. Nobody realized exactly what the mattress would have looked like in the initially place. Chippendale by no means built an additional a person like it and there ended up no recorded photographs offering clues to the bed’s visual appeal.

The conclude final result is a tribute to the skill and creativeness of the home furnishings historians and the professional craftsmen who labored on it. It now stands as one of Chippendale’s most remarkable creations, a masterpiece of English household furniture.

The Robert Adam layout is showcased closely with the ceilings coordinating with the vivid colours of the Condition Bed.

Two far more of Chippendale’s greatest items, intended for the State Dressing Space (now the Spanish Library) are also on screen right here: a marquetry satinwood secretaire and the Diana and Minerva Commode, which, with its intricate ivory inlay, elegant traces and drawers that whisper shut is generally referred to as his one greatest operate.
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The central aspect of the residence by John Carr of York (1723-1807).
The two lateral extensions and wings by Robert Adam (1728-1792).
For Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood (1713-1795).

Altered and heightened 1843 by Sir Charles Barry (1795-1860).
For Henry Lascelles, 3rd Earl of Harewood (1797-1857) in an Anglo-Italian design.