Lot Essay
Lenygon and Morant were top decorators/dealers in the earlier part of this century. The firm was established in 1915 when Messrs. Morant merged with Lenygon, antique dealers of Old Burlington Street. Frances Lenygon was the author of a number of books on early English interiors and decorative arts including The Decoration and Furniture of English Mansions in the 17th and 18th Centuries (1909), and the firm enjoyed a prominent clientele, refurbishing many of the great country houses including Chatsworth.
These richly carved pelmets, fretted and gadrooned with foliate sprays of Roman acanthus relate to the 'gilt cornices' thought to have been provided in the 1760's by William and John Linnell, cabinet-makers and upholsterers of Berkeley Square, Mayfair, for Osterley Park, Middlesex and listed in the 1782 inventory (see M. Tomlin and J. Hardy, Osterley Park House, 1985, p. 54). The arched Palladian cornice was created by Lenygon, and the side cornices were adapted from eighteenth century elements to be incorporated into the Museum's first period room which used Georgian panelling from a home in the Tower Hill section of London.
These richly carved pelmets, fretted and gadrooned with foliate sprays of Roman acanthus relate to the 'gilt cornices' thought to have been provided in the 1760's by William and John Linnell, cabinet-makers and upholsterers of Berkeley Square, Mayfair, for Osterley Park, Middlesex and listed in the 1782 inventory (see M. Tomlin and J. Hardy, Osterley Park House, 1985, p. 54). The arched Palladian cornice was created by Lenygon, and the side cornices were adapted from eighteenth century elements to be incorporated into the Museum's first period room which used Georgian panelling from a home in the Tower Hill section of London.