The Capesthorne, Cheshire Coade Artificial Stone Chimneypiece.
Indented COADE LONDON 1790.
Shelf width - 2254 mm - 88 ¾ in.
The subject matter would suggest that it was originally in a family chapel.
After a fire and rebuilding, the fireplace was taken to Capesthorne in the 1860s from the family's house in Belgrave Square.
The building of Belgrave Square post-dates the fireplace by about 40 years and so it is quite possible that this fireplace was in the original Georgian Capesthorne.
The frieze with classical figures to centre, the end blockings with finely cast dove.
The jambs with classical figures and winged Putti masks and drapery
below. The shelf with Lion's masks, egg and dart moulding and stiff acanthus
leaves. The plinth block indented with "Coade, London. 1790".
Previously with Chelminski Gallery, Kings Road, London.
https://www.thornhillgalleries.co.uk/item/stock-number-2613/
notes -
The chapel at Capesthorne was built in 1722 to a design by John Ward and restored in 1886–88 by Mrs Augusta Bromley Davenport.
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Page from the 1784 Coade Catalogue.
1784 Catalogue No. 514. Sizes and price on page 23.
A Marble version of this Chimneypiece is at Goodwood House.
This image from the Catalogue at the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.
The Bretton Hall Chimneypiece.
Coade Catalogue no. 514 with different tablet.
Modelled by John Bacon I.
Christie's - Clifton Little Venice Sale - 6 June 1994 Lot 188.
A GEORGE III COADE STONE CHIMNEY-PIECE, the moulded shelf
edged with drapery swags, the frieze with raised oval centred by a
laurel-framed shield with the arms of Beaumont and Wentworth surrounded by
swaggged drapery held by a faun and baccante, the fireplace opening edged with
entrelac-and-rosette, signed COADE 1796 LONDON (damages to shelf), late 18th
Century
Provenance - Bretton Hall, West Yorkshire.
Previously an anonymous Sale, Christie's, London, 25 June 1987, lot 85.
The Tablet is indented Coade Lambeth 1796.
The new house was begun c.1720 for Sir William Wentworth, who is thought to have designed it himself with the assistance of Col. James Moyser of Beverley, a friend of Lord Burlington, who was also involved later at Nostell Priory.
The house was described in 1730 as 'now a-building' by
the Earl of Mar (then in exile on the continent), It was a nine by five bay block of two-and-a-half
storeys, with a low-pitched roof hidden behind a balustrade and sash windows
set in moulded architraves. Rather curiously, no surviving view seems to be
known of the house before late 18th century alterations.
The first major changes were made for Sir Thomas Wentworth (later Blackett) (d. 1792), who inherited his uncle's Northumberland estates. He brought in William Lindley of Doncaster, who in about 1790 rebuilt the detached kitchens north of the house as an L-shaped block of two storeys above a basement, linked to the house by a long corridor.
Blackett left the estate to
his illegitimate daughter, Diana, the formidable wife of Col. Thomas Richard
Beaumont (1758-1829), who spent a fortune on remodelling the house.
The rooms east and west of the staircase have later coved ceilings and dainty Adamesque decoration, and there is compelling evidence that at least the east one (the dining room in the 18th century but now called the breakfast room) was altered by John Carr in 1793 - 94.
Its rich plasterwork is very similar
to that at Farnley Hall (Yorks WR) and has monochrome medallions like those at
Farnley painted by Theodore de Bruyn.
The current house was built around 1720 by Sir William
Wentworth, assisted by the architect, Colonel James Moyser. Famously the
contents of the Henry VIII parlour would be incorporated into the new house.
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The Goodwood House Chimneypiece.
The Chimneypiece was carved by John Bacon I for the Duke of Richmond in 1777. The design is related to the Bacon Coade Chimneypiece.
Made for Lord Irwin’s house, in Portman Square incorporates
figures representing the Muses of Drama and Music, after the models exhibited by
Bacon at the Royal Academy in 1777.
Restored by Messrs Melluish and Davis.
image below from -
Two further marble chimneypieces by John Bacon using similar designs.
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4 Elements from a Coade Chimneypiece.
Indented COADE LAMBETH DEL 1786.
From the Peter Hone sale by Lays lot 148 12 Oct. 2023
Bought from Messrs Jamb - sourced by them in the USA.
https://www.davidlay.co.uk/auction/lot/lot-148---eleanor-coade-1733--1821/?lot=116667&sd=1
The Octagon House, also known as the Colonel John Tayloe III House, is located at 1799 New York Avenue, Northwest in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
It was built in 1799 for John Tayloe III, the wealthiest planter in the country, at the behest of his new family member George Washington, as his sister Sarah Tayloe married William Augustine Washington, son of Gen. Washington's half brother Augustine Washington Jr.
In
September 1814, after British forces burnt the White House during the War of
1812, Tayloe, for six months, lent the Octagon House to United States president
James Madison and first lady Dolley Madison to serve as the Executive Mansion.
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Mrs Coade at the Society of Artists.
1774 - No 53 - A Chimneypiece in Artificial Stone for a nobleman's hall from a design of Mr Johnson's.
For a new and fairly in depth look at John Johnson and his relationships with John Bacon and Mrs Coade see -
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2026/10/john-johnson-coade-and-shire-hall.html
