5 designs for frames; John Linnell.

'No. 110' A design for an oval shaped pier glass. Half of the design is highly finished, the other half is barely sketched. The frame is vertically aligned. The frame features laurel and ribbon moulding. The crest is topped by a palmette finial with a patera underneath and a fluted cylinder under the patera. Acanthus scrolls and husk festoons decorate the sides of the frame. The apron features 2 acanthus c-scrolls and husks.

'No. 109' A design for a frame, possibly an overmantel. The shape is rectangular, almost square. Half of the design is highly finished, the other half is barely sketched. The frame is vertically aligned and features laurel and ribbon moulding. The crest features a palmette finial, husks and acanthus scrolls. The latter two continue around the frame to the apron.

'No. 108' A design for a girandole. Half of the design is highly finished, the other half is barely sketched. The urn finial sits on two c-scrolls. Husk festoons fall from the urn supported by acanthus scrolls around the sides. The apron features acanthus scrolls, a patera and a husk festoon.

'No. 107' 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 frame features neoclassical moulding. A large urn finial sits on a c-scroll base. Its handles are formed from the large acanthus s-scrolls which sit on the crest. Husk festoons hang down from the urn handles and follow the line of the mirror. The festoons loop up over a patera on the apron. The apron also features acanthus scrolls and husks.

'No. 106' 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. From a tapered urn finial hang husk swags, supported down the frame by acanthus scrolls. The apron features a patera, husk festoons, and acanthus scrolls.

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.3485-1911