A GEORGE II 'GOTHICK' STONE FIRE SURROUND

With its quatrefoil-flower fretted ornament and Gothic arched aperture, this fire-surround is in the British Antiquarian tradition promoted by Batty and Thomas Langley's Gothic Architecture improved by Rules and Proportions, published in 1747. The brothers' design of 1742 for a Chimney Piece, with interlaced roundels surmounted by a finial and above an arched aperture, directly corresponds to the present lot (ibid, pl. XLI). Such 'Gothick' fireplaces were no doubt intended for incorporation into grand room settings, such as the Langley-inspired Hopton stone fire surround commissioned by William Fitzherbert (d. 1772) for the banqueting and great room-of-entertainment at Tissington Hall, Derbyshire, executed by Joseph Hall of Derby in 1757.