Plan of the China Room ceiling. Manresa House, Roehampton, Wandsworth by leading architect and designer Sir William Chambers (1723-1796) about 1761. Manresa House was built between 1760 and 1768 or 1769, primarily to hold the Earl of Bessborough’s collection of antique sculpture. It was placed to give the appearance of an antique temple standing in a grove of trees, especially when viewed from Richmond Park, which bordered the site. The centre of the ceiling is a circle of green olive branch tied with a pink ribbon. Outside this is a larger circle of laurel, coloured dark green. This design, from the ceiling pattern book, is highly finished and presented as fragmentary.

Chambers was born in Sweden and died in London. He travelled widely, visiting China, and studied architecture at the Ecole des Arts, Paris, from 1749 and in Italy from 1750 to 1755. Many of his drawings from this period are contained in his important 'Franco-Italian' album, held in the V&A. Chambers moved to London in 1755 and published his influential Treatise on Civil Architecture in 1759. Chambers demonstrated the breadth of his style in buildings such as Gower (later Carrington) House and Melbourne House, London, in such country houses as Duddingston, Scotland, and in the garden architecture he designed for Wilton House, Wiltshire, and at Kew Gardens. He became head of government building in 1782, and in this capacity built Somerset House, London.