Object Type
With the invention of the hob grate in the mid-18th century, fireplaces assumed a box-like structure with front panels that were often highly decorated. This was made possible by the improved casting techniques pioneered earlier in the century. This tradition of highly ornate, cast-iron fireplaces and decorated surrounds continued until the late 19th century.

People
Jeckyll trained as an architect and was active, both as an architect and designer in London and Norfolk. In the 1860s he came into contact with James McNeill Whistler and Edward William Godwin. By the 1870s he was one of the leading architects of the Aesthetic movement. He designed an interior for the Holland Park house of the collector Alexander Ionides (who bequeathed much of his collection of paintings to the V&A) and the dining room of a house in Princes Gate. The latter, on account of its later painted decoration by J.M. Whistler, became known as the Peacock Room, and is currently on display in the Freer Art Gallery, Washington, USA. Jeckyll became mentally unstable in 1877 and died in an asylum in 1881.

Design & Designing
The Aesthetic or Art movement was triggered by the display of Japanese decorative art at the London International Exhibition of 1862. Strongly influenced by Japanese design, it was a reaction to the moral hegemony of the mid-century Gothic Revival. Instead, the pursuit of 'Art for Art's sake' became a justifiable goal in itself. The movement was established when the magazine Punch paid it the tribute of making a mockery of it.