Grinling Gibbons...

Above: Portrait of Grinling Gibbons by Godfrey Kneller

Grinling Gibbons was a dutch born and trained wood carver hailed as England's best craftsman.

Said to be discovered by Diarist John Evelyn on a walk through Deptford one night, Gibbons came to be introduced to Charles II and eventually became the royal carver.

In his hay-day anyone who was 'anyone' wanted to commission his work for their country houses (a bit like everybody wanting a Capability Brown garden).

His realism was created by carving many motifs out of different pieces of wood and then layering them and joining them together with joints and glue in order to create the most amazingly detailed 3D carvings (usually of lime wood) which left shallow traditionally carved pieces (made from a single piece of (usually) oak) in the shade.

I think his most amazing piece is the Cosimo panel, created as a diplomatic gift from Charles II to Cosimo, Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Above: Full Panel

Below: Details

Above: The amazing wooden 'lace'cravat that he made for Horace Walpole, who reportedly greeted visitors to his Strawberry Hill dressed up to the nines wearing it.

Below: Some of the ornate boiserie carving that he did for the Duke of Somerset at Petworth House...

There is a great BBC documentary on Grinling Gibbons from their series Carved with Love. If you can find it it is well worth watching.

Ballroom and Music Room Millwork...

I have had fun over the past few weeks nutting out the boiserie, columns and millwork for The Ballroom and The Music Room.

Below: The plan for the ballroom.

We are having consoles carved for the two walls between the french doors based on a pair I took a photo of in an antique store...

 I was taken with the way that, rather unusually, they were wider at the front than at the back...

They are shown below with pier glasses hanging above. I also added six square fluted columns to the room...

Above: View West to Terrace

Below: View East to Music Room

Below: View North to Terrace

I looked at lots of source photos to decide how I would shape and size the columns, and to decide on which capitals we would use...

 

It seems by far the most popular choice is the flattened square column or pilaster against a wall, with a Corinthian capital and a generous base. Sometimes the base is also paneled to match the room...

 

I also found plenty of examples of gilded boiserie panels... 

 

And gilded doors, which sent me on another mission to find doors with panels that could be gilded...

 

These were helpful in designing both the Ballroom, and the music room...

 Above: The South Wall of Music Room

Below: The West Wall through to Ballroom (identical elevation to East Wall through to Salon)

 Below: North Wall through to Terrace and Loggia.

To get the 'Versailles' look within our budget, I found some plaster wall ornamentation and panels, which we can have gilded and apply to the walls (not quite Grinling Gibbons, but it will do)...

 Above and Below: Swags for the Music Room wall panels.

Above and Below: The Ballroom and Music Room wall panels. The details will be picked out in gold paint after the panels have been painted in a antique eggshell colour.

Below: An alternate panel

Additional panel for gilding and use in the ballroom: