Lot Essay
This overmantel is a simplified version of a design published by Thomas Johnson in his Collection of Designs, of 1758, pl. 7 and One Hundred and Fifty New Designs, of 1761, pl. 8 (reproduced in E. White, ed., Pictorial Dictionary of British 18th Century Furniture Design, 1990, p. 332). An overmantel directly copying the pattern hung in the Drawing Room of Pomfret Castle on Arlington Street in London (now demolished) and is illustrated in situ in C. Simon Sykes, Private Palaces, 1986, p. 143.