Vista of the State Apartments.
The State-apartments, which are entered from this Gallery, consist of a splendid suite of rooms, occupying the entire length of the building. The entrance is through a small apartment around the walls of which is arranged a fine collection of examples of Ceramic Art, including many good specimens of the more famous English and foreign makes. These were, in great measure, removed here from the Duke’s villa at Chiswick. Adjoining this, at the south-west angles, is—
The State Dressing-Room, the coved ceiling of which is beautifully painted, the subject being, in the centre, the flight of Mercury on his mission to Paris, and, on the coving, groups representing the Arts and Sciences. The wood-carving in this room, as in the whole of this suite of apartments, is of the most wonderful and most exquisitely beautiful character, and is unmatched in any other existing mansion. On the west side are four pendants and a group of the most delicate workmanship, and over the principal doorway is represented a group of carvers’ tools, &c.—a globe, compass, brace and bit, square, augurs, chisels, gouges, cum multis aliis, and a small bust. This apartment contains some fine Japan, inlaid, and other cabinets, and curious old earthenware; and on the walls, besides a clever picture in mosaic, is a frame containing what is universally admitted to be the finest and most wonderful specimen of wood-carving ever executed;—this we engrave. It is usually called “Grinling Gibbons’ masterpiece,” and whether by Gibbons or not (and there is no direct authority either one way or other), it is, indeed, a masterpiece of art. Concerning the question whether the carving is by Gibbons or not, we shall have a few words to say when writing of the chapel. The “masterpiece” is a group consisting of a cravat of point-lace, as clear and delicate in the open-work as the finest lace itself, a woodcock, some foliage, and a medal with a bust in relief. Of this group Horace Walpole thus wrote:—“When Gibbons had finished his work at that palace (Chatsworth) he presented the Duke with a point cravat, a woodcock, and a medal with his own head, all preserved in a glass-case in the gallery;” but he had no authority for any such statement, nor is there any record of Gibbons having ever been at Chatsworth. From the door of this room the vista, when looking through the state-apartments, is remarkably striking and effective; the flooring throughout the suite being of oak parqueterie which reflects the light in a pleasing manner. This we engrave.
Grinling Gibbons’ Masterpiece.
The Old State-Bed-room, the first apartment seen through the doorway in our engraving, is a fine and very interesting apartment. The ceiling, which is coved, is splendidly painted, the principal subject being “Aurora chasing away the Night;” and the walls are hung with embossed leather of rich arabesque pattern, heavily gilded; the frieze, also of embossed leather, is richly foliated, with medallions bearing respectively the bust of the late Duke of Devonshire, his crest and coronet, and his monogram, alternating round the room. Over the doorways are splendid examples of wood-carving of groups of musical instruments; on one group is suspended a medallion head of Charles II., and the words “Carolvs II. Dei Gratia,” and on the other a watch. Over and around the chimney-piece are cherubs’ heads, birds, foliage, &c., of the same fine class of wood-carving. In this room (besides cabinets, vases, and beakers, and a charming model of the tomb of Madame Langlan, at Hildebank, near Berne, in which the spirits of the mother and child are seen bursting through their broken tomb) is a noble and ancient embroidered canopy and state-chair, the work of Christiana, Countess of Devonshire, the wife of the second Earl of Devonshire.
The Old State Bed-room.