PROBABLY CIRCA 1820

Conceived in the George II Romano-British fashion associated with Inigo Jones and promoted by Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington and William Kent, the brackets echinous-enriched cornices are raised on foliated, reeded and truss-scrolled pilasters that are festooned with laurels and terminate in pelta-shields. In their overall form these brackets correspond to a design by William Kent for brackets to support bronzes at Rousham House, Oxfordshire. In the 1730s Burlington introduced a more elaborate version of such brackets for the display of busts in the octagonal banqueting saloon of his villa at Chiswick (R. Hewlings, Chiswick House, London, 1989, p.9). This same pattern is also recorded at Devonshire House, London - dating from both the 1730's and 1820's for the improvements carried out by the 6th Duke of Devonshire.

A related pattern also featured in J. Vardy, Some Designs of Mr. Inigo Jones and Mr. William Kent, 1744 (pl.20).