Four designs for oval frames; John Linnell.

'No. 114' a design for an oval pier glass. The frame is vertically aligned. A bow sits above the mirror. One set of husks loop down from the bow to form a tear-drop shape and touch the palmette below. Two sets of husk festoons hang from the bow and continue to the bottom of the frame, supported by acanthus scrolls. The husks loop over a patera.

'No. 113' 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 ribbon-and-stick and other neoclassical moulding. A tapered urn finial is supported by acanthus scrolls. Husk festoons are supported by acanthus scrolls around the sides. The apron features a patera, acanthus scrolls and husks. This is an unusual design for Linnell because of the use of the colour red.

'No. 112' A design for an oval pier glass. Half of the design is highly finished, the other half is less detailed. The frame is vertically aligned. The frame features neoclassical moulding. The anthemion finial sits on top of a cylinder decorated with ribbon-and-stick. Husk festoons are supported by acanthus scrolls around the sides. The apron features a husk festoon, acanthus scrolls, a patera and bell flowers.

'No. 111' A design for an oval pier glass. Half of the design is highly finished, the other half is barely sketched. The frame features bead and reel moulding and fluting. A large urn finial with s-scroll handles sits on two leaf c-scrolls. Leaf scrolls decorate the sides. Floral and foliage serpentine decoration is also used. Husk festoons are supported by leaf scrolls. The apron features a ram's head and a looped husk festoon.

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.

E.3486-1911