An English 18th Century George II sienna and white statuary marble fire surround designed by Isaac Ware for Chesterfield House, London circa 1749

Made from well figured Italian Sienna marble with white Statuary marble shelf and carved embellishments. The serpentine frieze centred by a carved statuary marble peacock, (the symbol of Hera, the wife of Zeus), with scrolling acanthus leaves to either side. The serpentine shaped opening with moulded frame, the jambs with carved marble acanthus scrolls, flowers and descending husks. 

Provenance:

Philip Stanhope (1694-1772) 4th. Earl of Chesterfield, Chesterfield House, London. Originally installed in the Boudoir which was later described by Country Life in 1922 as ‘the green drawing room’. In the additional images section see photographs of the very fire surround taken by ‘Country Life’ magazine in 1894 and 1922. On the photo from 1922 note the clearly matched veining which is unique like a fingerprint on both the frieze and right hand side foot-block. 

Chesterfield House 

Chesterfield House was a grand London townhouse built between 1747 and 1752 by Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773), statesman and man of letters. The exterior was in the Palladian style, the interior Baroque. It stood in Mayfair on the north side of Curzon Street, between South Audley Street and what is now Chesterfield Street. It was demolished in 1937 and on its site now stands a block of flats of the same name.

Faced with the prospect of demolition in 1869, the house was purchased by the City merchant Charles Magniac, for a reported sum of £175,000. Magniac considerably curtailed the grounds in the rear, and erected a row of buildings overlooking Chesterfield Street, named Chesterfield Gardens.

The house was later purchased in 1919 by Viscount Lascelles, who later married Princess Mary in 1923. The couple moved out of the house on the weekend of 19-20 December 1931.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, who built Chesterfield House
The house was built on land belonging to Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe by Isaac Ware. In his “Letters to his Son”, Chesterfield wrote from “Hotel Chesterfield” on 31 March 1749: “I have yet finished nothing but my boudoir and my library; the former is the gayest and most cheerful room in England; the latter the best. My garden is now turfed, planted and sown, and will in two months more make a scene of verdure and flowers not common in London.