“Vanburgh understood better than either the art of living among the great. A commodious arrangement of apartments was therefore his peculiar merit. But his lively imagination scorned the restraint of any rule in composition; and his passion for what was fancifully magnificent, prevented him from discerning what was truly simple, elegant, and sublime.
“Campbell, Gibbs, and Kent have each their peculiar share of merit.”
From their own testimony we can, therefore, not agree with them, when they write elsewhere:
“Inferior to our ancestors in science, we surpass them in taste.” However, they insist that at the time they write, “greater variety of form, greater beauty in design, greater gaiety, and elegance of ornament are introduced into interior decoration.”
They were greatly in demand, as we have seen, and not only altered the interiors and exteriors of many English mansions, but designed the decorations. Chimney-pieces, ceilings, walls, niches, the handles of doors, locks, key-plates, cornices, draperies, furniture, gold and silver ware, and even damask for the table. Nothing seemed too great, nor too slight for their hands. The attitude they had towards their work may be appreciated by the following words:
“If we have any claim to approbation, we found it on this alone. That we flatter ourselves we have been able to seize, with some degree of success, the beautiful spirit of antiquity, and to transfuse it, with novelty and variety, through all our numerous works.”
The pictures on Plates [L.], [LI.], and [LII.] are taken from the book by the Adams. No. 1, on Plate [L.], is the curtain cornice of the Earl of Derby’s Etruscan Room; No. 2 on the same plate is another cornice with drapery, which, with the mirror below it, were made for Sion House. No. 4 is the leg of a table and No. 5 is the upper part of the frame of a pier-glass. The lower drawing is a sideboard table, under which, in the original drawing, a wine-cooler stands. No. 3 is a table, also from Sion House.
The sofa appearing on Plate [LI.] is of mahogany, the woodwork fluted and mounted with brass reliefs. The legs are characteristic of Adam. The cover is woolen work on canvas.
The table on the same plate is inlaid and has a border of inlaid brass and wood around the top. The two drawers under the top have borders of brass and are decorated with brass lions. In the centre of each crosspiece there is a decoration of leaves surrounding a rosette. The legs are gilded at intervals, and are ornamented with gilt lion’s heads and end in claw feet. This dates from about 1780.
The screen on the same plate is supported on a stand of wood fluted and gilded, out of which rises a brass rod. The oval frame encloses a piece of silk embroidery said to have been made by Queen Caroline. The little picture in the centre is painted. No. 1 is a curtain cornice, of which Adam says: “These curtains were intended as an attempt to banish absurd French compositions.” No. 2 is a ewer, that also appears in the Adam book. Plate [XLIX.] is a library after the Adam style. The full drawing on Plate [LII.] is a commode from the Countess of Derby’s dressing-room; it is richly decorated. No. 2 is a detail. No. 3 on the same plate from it is a girandole, made for a niche in the Earl of Derby’s Etruscan Room. The full drawing is “a design of a vase for candles to be fixed to the wainscoting of a room”; the central vase is a perfume-burner. No. 1 is a tripod of gilded wood, intended to support a base with candles.