Arch or cartway, pointed and depressed; in the left spandrel is a boy holding by the tongue a dolphin terminating in scrolling leaves; in the right is a similar dolphin with a fish biting its tail. Above is a projecting cornice supported on two brackets. The jambs are moulded.

Acquired with a ceiling and a door and doorway from the Church Farm, Clare (Sudbury, Suffolk). (The purchase of wall panelling and a chimneypiece from Church Farm was rejected as they had come from a different house, and were about 150 years later in date.) Purchased for £450 from Mr George von Pirch (7 Arundel Mansions, Fulham), who had removed them from the farm, probably acting for Sir Charles Lawes of St. Albans. Recommended by the architect T.G. Jackson and the artist Walter Crane.
Transferred from the Sculpture Department to the Furniture Department RP 26/123.

Notes on the RF recommend "that it be put up at the same height from floor to ceiling as originally, and as nearly as possible in its true relative position to the great cart entrance which would involve keeping the floor of the room about 2' above the ground...we think the paint might be removed. The projecting soffit should be lathed and plastered and whitened and the facia moulding be refixed...The photographs of the house before its demolition [not found on RP] should accompany the actual work..." Jackson and Crane

See photo of panelling in Medieval England ed. H.W.C. Davis (Oxford 1924) p.87, fig.73 - Tracy says 'The panelling of this room, purchased by Sir Charles Lawes-Wittewronge, is now at Rothamstead Park, (Herts. Buildings of England, Hertfordshire, 159.)

Tracy compares the cartway with the archway at Paycocke's House, Coggeshall, Essex.

Suffolk

726:1-1902