DESIGN No. 27.
A DECORATED WINDOW.
THIS design was sketched with the intention of making Italian forms rival the tracery of the Decorated Gothic window, and to obtain a rich and variegated mass of painted and coloured glass, without any stiff mannerism or formality. The window was 11 ft. in height with a width of 7 ft.; it served as a screen in one of the principal staircases in a house at Queen’s Gate, Kensington; immediately behind it is the servants’ staircase, having a large window and skylight. The lower portion of this window is divided into three lights by two pilasters acting as mullions. The circle above the transome is filled with a richly painted subject, representing a basket of flowers and scrollwork on a ruby ground. The basket is formed of emerald glass, the ground of the surrounding portions is richly embossed glass, the chief portions white, the small portions ruby, yellow and blue, the latter with white ornaments upon it. The three lights between the pilasters are filled with embossed glass, and the whole is surrounded by borders of scrollwork richly embossed, stained and painted; the ruby ground is shown in the drawing by vertical lines, the yellow by oblique lines, and the blue by horizontal lines. The expense, including the zinc-work for fixing the glass to the upper portion or fan-light, was 22l. 6s.; the lower portion cost 8l. 10s. It was the work of Messrs. Baillie and Co. of Wardour Street.
DESIGN No. 28.
A SCULPTOR’S VILLA.
DURING the year 1850 the author, in conjunction with the late Mr. John Britton, F.S.A., was engaged in making some topographical sketches in one of the western counties of England. He became for a short time the guest of one of its principal residents—a gentleman who had succeeded to the possession of more than a million of money, the result of a relative’s gains as a merchant in the City. He had filled the small house he was then inhabiting with a very fine collection of antique bronzes: also with ancient and modern statuary. The house was occupied in every corner with these valuable and beautiful works of art. He was then having another house of larger dimensions erected to receive them. Considerable discussion took place at his table between himself and his visitors, among whom were two or three distinguished men of taste, as to the best method of introducing sculpture into a dwelling of moderate capacity. It was the general opinion that to properly exhibit classic sculpture, a villa the size of those of the ancients, such as are described by Pliny in the account of his villas at Laurentinum and Tusculum, would be required, and that no other would suffice. On his return home, the author, as a matter of amusement, without any thought that his ideas would ever be carried out, made the present design; it was a subject that pleased him, as he had only a few years previously