Design for a Pier-glass for Adderbury House, Oxfordshire, for the Duke of Buccleuch
ca. 1768
Medium
Pen and ink, watercolor
Dimensions
sheet: 18 1/2 x 9 1/2 in. (47 x 24.1 cm)
Classification
Drawings|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1934
Accession Number
34.78.2(36)
Tags
Art Historical Context
This exquisite design by Sir William Chambers, a neoclassical architect of the 18th century, a pier-glass—a tall, elegant mirror intended for placement between windows—for Adderbury House in Oxfordshire. Commissioned around 1768 for the of Buccleuch, reflects the opulent interiors of grand British country estates during the Georgian era. Chambers, known for his influential works like Somerset House in London, drew inspiration from French and Roman architecture, blending symmetry, classical motifs, and refined ornamentation to elevate domestic spaces. Rendered in pen and ink with watercolor on...
About the Artist
Sir William Chambers · 1723–1796
### Sir William Chambers (1723–1796) Born on 23 February 1723 in Gothenburg, Sweden, to parents of Scottish descent—his father a merchant—Sir William Chambers embarked on an extraordinary path that bridged continents and cultures. At just 16, after initial education in England, he joined the Swedish East India Company, undertaking three voyages to China in the 1740s. These journeys profoundly sha...