Fireplace Mantels & Surrounds · Georgian & Colonial Revival
Thorne Miniature Room: Virginia Drawing Room, 1755
A 1:12-scale Thorne Room inspired by Virginia plantation drawing rooms of the 1750s, with a paneled chimney breast, overmantel and full-height painted woodwork.
Design characteristics
Virginia's great colonial houses favored fully paneled rooms painted in strong colors, with the chimney breast as the main architectural event. This miniature centers on a fireplace with a moulded surround, a paneled overmantel and flanking pilasters. The rest of the walls continue the same panel module, so the room feels unified. For a modern project, the takeaway is the overmantel: extending the mantel's frame above the shelf makes a fireplace the clear center of a room, even in a new house.
Classification
- Category
- Fireplace Mantels & Surrounds
- Material
- Painted pine
- Motifs
- Overmantel, Raised panel
- Model made
- c. 1940
- Maker or designer
- Designed by Narcissa Niblack Thorne American, 1882–1966
- Recorded medium
- Miniature room, mixed media
- Dimensions
- External: 60.4 × 132.8 × 72.4 cm (23 3/4 × 52 1/4 × 28 1/2 in.); Internal (main room only): 35.3 × 56.2 × 50.8 cm (13 7/8 × 22 1/8 × 20 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.
