A GEORGE II SIENA, JASPER AND STATUARY MARBLE CHIMNEYPIECE, attributed to Sir Henry Cheere, Bt., with a breakfront shelf with ogee moulded edge above foliate and egg-and-dart bands, the conjoined Ionic columns supporting the entablature embellished with a flower head to each end, centred by a projecting bas-relief tablet, depicting a winter landscape with children attending a fire, two of whom prepare the timber while a third works the bellows, the background with a dog barking at birds in a tree while youths skate at the foot of a hillock dominated by a hamlet with smoking chimney, and flanked to each side by Jasper spar panels with applied reliefs carved à jour (one damaged) depicting a spaniel starting a hare amongst rushes, the hearth moulding carved with a flowered ribbon guilloche, circa 1755

Details

A GEORGE II SIENA, JASPER AND STATUARY MARBLE CHIMNEYPIECE, attributed to Sir Henry Cheere, Bt., with a breakfront shelf with ogee moulded edge above foliate and egg-and-dart bands, the conjoined Ionic columns supporting the entablature embellished with a flower head to each end, centred by a projecting bas-relief tablet, depicting a winter landscape with children attending a fire, two of whom prepare the timber while a third works the bellows, the background with a dog barking at birds in a tree while youths skate at the foot of a hillock dominated by a hamlet with smoking chimney, and flanked to each side by Jasper spar panels with applied reliefs carved à jour (one damaged) depicting a spaniel starting a hare amongst rushes, the hearth moulding carved with a flowered ribbon guilloche, circa 1755
87½in.(222cm.) wide; 69in. (175.5cm.) high; 10¼in. (26cm.) deep

Lot Essay

The Ionic-columned chimneypiece is designed in the George II 'Palladian' manner, as illustrated in Abraham Swan's Collection of Designs in Architecture, 1757. Its bas-reliefs reflect the mid-18th century French 'picturesque' style made fashionable by sculptors such as Henry Cheere (d. 1781) and William Collins (d. 1783).

A related chimneypiece, without the bas-reliefs, was offered by Christie's, London, 4 July 1991, lot 34.

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