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Drawing

mid 1770s (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This design is part of a group of over 900 drawings of frames, mainly for pier glasses, overmantels, and girandoles. Many of these workshop designs share similar characteristics such as leaf scrolls and festoons of husks. Most of them are numbered, contain information about who ordered them, the date, the price (written in code), the colour of the frame and the dimensions of the finished object.

The drawings from John Linnell's workshop survive over the period 1773 to 1783. From April 1773 to August 1778, the workshop produced about twelve pieces a month. Production decreased over the next two years to 3 or 4 pieces a month. In 1783 these designs were no longer produced.

Robert Adam, a leading architect, was a key influence on the neoclassical designs of John Linnell. Linnell worked with Adam for the first time at Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire, and they worked together on a number of other occasions. In the early 1770s festoons of husks began to be used on pier glasses and they are very prominent within these workshop designs.

John Linnell (1729-1796) was the son of the famous furniture maker William Linnell (ca. 1703-1763). Unlike most furniture makers, John Linnell gained a design education at the St. Martin's Lane Academy, which was founded by William Hogarth in 1735. In 1750, aged 21, he joined his father's firm as a designer. On his father's death in 1763, John Linnell took over the family firm. During his lifetime John Linnell produced high quality furniture, which rivalled that of other leading furniture makers such as Thomas Chippendale, John Cobb and William Ince and John Mayhew.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Ink, pencil, yellow watercolour
Brief description
4 designs for frames, 3 details of the moulding; John Linnell.
Physical description
'No. 170' A design for an oval pier glass. Half of the design is highly finished, the other half is barely sketched. The frame is vertically aligned. A band of beading near the edge of the mirror and 6 paterae are placed over the glass. The main frame has a repeating pattern of palmettes and foliage decoration. Around the main frame is a circle of leaf scrolls. The urn finial has squared handles. The apron features a ribbon and what look like pine cones at the base of the two acanthus stems.

'No. 169' A design for an oval pier glass. Half of the design is highly finished, the other half is barely sketched. The frame is vertically aligned. From the squared handles of the urn finial fall husk festoons, which follow the line of the frame and curl over a patera on the apron.

Below is a detail of the moulding.

'No. 168' A design for an oval pier glass. Half of the design is highly finished, the other half is barely sketched. The frame is vertically aligned. The frame features neoclassical moulding. Husk festoons fall from the handles of the urn finial and follow the line of the glass. The apron features acanthus scrolls, a swag and bellflowers.

Below is a detail of the moulding.

'No. 167' A design for a rectangular frame. Half of the design is highly finished, the other half is less detailed. The frame is vertically aligned. The crest is topped by a palmette finial '8 1/2' inches high. The moulding of the frame is simple, with a serpentine line when in profile, with foliage in the corners and a c-scroll on either side. From the palmette on the top curl acanthus scrolls which support husk swags. The apron features the same details and a patera in the centre.

Below is a detail of the moulding in profile.
Dimensions
  • Mount height: 54.5cm
  • Mount width: 74.6cm
  • Design height: 30.7cm
  • Design width: 50.5cm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'No. 170' 'Mr Mount' '4 ft 11 wide' '7 ft 4 high' '39 28' 'S[Z]:[Z]:[Z]'
  • 'No. 169' 'Mr Battin wt' '26-18' '£S:H:2.'
  • 'No. 168' 'Mr Battin B. gold April 7th 1774' '28-20' '2:0 1/2' '4:6' '£R:H:[Z].'
  • 'No. 167' 'Mr Jones' '8 1/2' '32-20' '2 In broad'
Subjects depicted
Summary
This design is part of a group of over 900 drawings of frames, mainly for pier glasses, overmantels, and girandoles. Many of these workshop designs share similar characteristics such as leaf scrolls and festoons of husks. Most of them are numbered, contain information about who ordered them, the date, the price (written in code), the colour of the frame and the dimensions of the finished object.

The drawings from John Linnell's workshop survive over the period 1773 to 1783. From April 1773 to August 1778, the workshop produced about twelve pieces a month. Production decreased over the next two years to 3 or 4 pieces a month. In 1783 these designs were no longer produced.

Robert Adam, a leading architect, was a key influence on the neoclassical designs of John Linnell. Linnell worked with Adam for the first time at Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire, and they worked together on a number of other occasions. In the early 1770s festoons of husks began to be used on pier glasses and they are very prominent within these workshop designs.

John Linnell (1729-1796) was the son of the famous furniture maker William Linnell (ca. 1703-1763). Unlike most furniture makers, John Linnell gained a design education at the St. Martin's Lane Academy, which was founded by William Hogarth in 1735. In 1750, aged 21, he joined his father's firm as a designer. On his father's death in 1763, John Linnell took over the family firm. During his lifetime John Linnell produced high quality furniture, which rivalled that of other leading furniture makers such as Thomas Chippendale, John Cobb and William Ince and John Mayhew.
Bibliographic references
  • Helena Hayward and Pat Kirkham,William and John Linnell; eighteenth century London furniture makers (London, ca. 1980).
  • Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design, Accessions 1911, London, Printed for His Majesty’s Stationery Office 1912
Collection
Accession number
E.3497-1911

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
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