Although Robert and James Adam had great influence in creating and strengthening the “taste for the antique,” they were not the only ones who made war upon the rococo, Gothic and Chinese. One of these was George Richardson, who, like Adam, travelled in Italy. He published A Book of Ceilings composed in the style of the Antique Grotesque, in 1776; A New Collection of Chimney-Pieces in the style of the Etruscan, Greek and Roman Architecture, in 1781; and A Series of Original Designs for Country Seats or Villas, containing Plans, Elevations, Sections of Principal Apartments, Ceilings, Chimney Pieces, Capitals of Columns, Ornaments for Friezes, and Other Interior Decorations in the Antique Style, in 1795.
Placido Columbani published A New Book of Ornaments, in 1775; and A Variety of Capitals, Friezes, Cornices and Chimney-pieces, in 1776. These are designs for the interior decoration of rooms, chiefly of panels to be made in wood, or stucco, or painting.
John Crunden was another. He issued Designs for Ceilings, in 1765; Convenient and Ornamental Architecture, in 1768; The Joiner and Cabinet-Maker’s Darling, in 1770; and, with Thomas Milton and Placido Columbani, The Chimney-Piece Maker’s Daily Assistant, or a Treasury of New Designs for Chimney-Pieces.
N. Wallis published, in 1771, A Book of Ornaments in the Palmyrene Taste, which was followed by The Carpenter’s Treasure and The Complete Modern Joiner, which contain designs for ceilings, panels, pateras, mouldings, chimney-pieces, door-cases, friezes, tablets for the centre ornaments, chimney-pieces, and door-cases and ornaments for pilasters, bases and sub-bases. The greater number were of allegorical subjects. Wallis was fond of the “Raffle” leaf (indented foliage, such as the acanthus). J. Carter was another designer in the Adam taste. His ceilings greatly resembled Richardson’s. The latter describes one of his own chimney-pieces as follows: “The plain ground round the pilasters and architrave may be of jasper, or antique green; and the ornaments of the frieze and pilasters might be done of scagliola,[[21]] and should be executed in wood; the ornaments will produce a fine effect if painted in the Etruscan manner—in various colours.” A Triumph of Venus is a tablet of another chimney-piece, “suitable for an elegant gallery or Drawing-room. She is sitting in a shell drawn by Dolphins guided by Cupid, in the air and accompanied by a Triton blowing his shell trumpet, and holding Neptune’s trident. The plain ground round the pilasters with termes may be of variegated colours, but all the rest should be of plain white marble.” Of the ceiling for a dressing-room he says: “The oval picture represents Diana bathing attended by her Nymphs. The small circles contain figures representing hunting-pieces and sacrifices, which may be painted in chiaro-oscuro, or executed in stucco in the manner of antique bas-reliefs.” A chimney-piece, suitable for a Parlour or Dining-room, is thus described: “The ornaments of the frieze may be of white marble, laid on dark grounds. If the cornice, with the frieze and back pilasters, be carved in wood, the moldings of the architraves in marble, might be quite plain.”
It will therefore be seen that the “Adam style” was a fashion. Taste was running its natural course and the reaction to the antique, from the curve in favour of the straight line, had set in.
The social position of the Adam brothers helped them greatly in towering above the other English designers and decorative artists of the day. Their father, William Adam, was an architect of reputation in Scotland; and sent his second son, Robert, to the University of Edinburgh, where he formed important friendships. In 1754, he went to Italy with a French architect and made a careful study of the ruins of the Emperor Diocletian’s palace at Spalatro in Dalmatia. He was made F.R.S. and F.S.A. while abroad; and, on his return to England, in 1762, become royal architect. His brother James was closely identified with him in all his work. The nobility and gentry not only patronized them, but received them socially; and when Robert died in 1792, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, the state of his funeral and the high rank of the persons who attended and officiated, prove the regard in which he was held. Adam, therefore, is of a very different class from Chippendale, Heppelwhite and Sheraton; and, although he designed much furniture to accord with the rooms that he altered and decorated, he never made any. The Adam brothers were purely designers: they employed special artists to work for them. These were Angelica Kauffman, and her husband, Antonio Zucchi, and Cipriani; also Pergolesi, whom they brought from Italy, and who Mr. Heaton says “beyond doubt was the unacknowledged author of most of the beautiful details of Adam’s book.”
Among their most important works that include interior decoration were: Sion House, the Duke of Northumberland’s seat in Middlesex; Kenwood, Lord Mansfield’s house near Hampstead; Osterley House, near Brentford; Shelburne (now Lansdowne) House, Berkeley Square, London; Keddlestone, Derbyshire; Luton House, Bedfordshire; and Compton Verney, Warwickshire.
PLATE L
“Whatever were the architectural defects of their works, the brothers formed a style, which was marked by a fine sense of proportion, and a very elegant taste in the selection and disposition of niches, lunettes, reliefs, festoons, and other classical ornaments. It was their custom to design furniture in character with their apartments, and their works of this kind are still highly prized. Amongst them may be specially mentioned their sideboards with elegant urn-shaped knife-boxes, but they also designed bookcases and commodes, brackets and pedestals, clock-cases and candelabra, mirror-frames and console tables of singular and original merit, adapting classical forms to modern uses with a success unrivalled by any other designer of furniture in England. They designed also carriages and plate, and a sedan-chair for Queen Charlotte. Of their decorative work generally it may be said that it was rich but neat, refined but not effeminate, chaste but not severe, and that it will probably have quite as lasting and beneficial effect upon English taste as their architectural structures.”[[22]]