Wall Paneling & Wainscoting · Georgian & Colonial Revival
Thorne Miniature Room: Massachusetts Drawing Room, 1768
A 1:12-scale Thorne Room of a Massachusetts drawing room of 1768, with painted raised-panel walls, pilasters and a classical chimneypiece typical of prosperous New England houses before the Revolution.
Design characteristics
Colonial New England drawing rooms were often fully paneled on the fireplace wall, with the rest of the room finished with a paneled dado and plaster above. This miniature captures that hierarchy: the chimney breast is framed by fluted pilasters and topped with a classical entablature, while the side walls are simpler. The paint color unifies everything. It is a useful model for anyone adding a paneled fireplace wall to a Colonial Revival house, because it shows how much detail to give the focal wall and how quiet to keep the rest.
Classification
- Category
- Wall Paneling & Wainscoting
- Material
- Painted pine
- Motifs
- Raised panel, Pilaster
- Model made
- c. 1940
- Maker or designer
- Designed by Narcissa Niblack Thorne American, 1882–1966
- Recorded medium
- Miniature room, mixed media
- Dimensions
- External: 51.5 × 143.6 × 61.6 cm (20 1/4 × 56 1/2 × 24 1/4 in.); Internal (main room only): 31.2 × 70.5 × 57.8 cm (12 1/4 × 27 3/4 × 22 3/4 in.)
- Evidence
- Museum miniature room (scale model)
- Source
- Art Institute of Chicago
Architectural context
Symmetry, classical proportions and refined raised-panel woodwork. Britain and colonial America · original c. 1714–1830; revival c. 1876–1955.
