By Michele Ann Young
Fenton House continued
We saw the narrow servants' stairs in the previous set of pictures. Here are the stairs the family would have used. Not the impressive staircase of some of the houses we have seen, but clearly wide, with lighting from a large window on the first landing, which itself is wide enough for a chair. The window looks out over the walled garden.
This is the original seventeenth century staircase with twisted balusters. Now we go upstairs
This next room on the ground floor has been described as a small sitting room, or study and displays some of the finest figurines from England and the continent in the eighteenth century. Some of the English makers are Bristol, Bow, Chelsea and Derby.
The mirror between the windows is fine gilt gessor, or sconce, once equipped with branches for candles from 1715. The instrument is a 1612 harpsicord.
This is the last room on the ground floor, and its use in our time is not described. The alcove off to the right would have been a closet, not open as it is now.
It now displays early Chinese ceramics some of which were imported into England in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
Next time we will climb the staircase and look around upstairs. Until then Happy Rambles.
Fenton House continued
We saw the narrow servants' stairs in the previous set of pictures. Here are the stairs the family would have used. Not the impressive staircase of some of the houses we have seen, but clearly wide, with lighting from a large window on the first landing, which itself is wide enough for a chair. The window looks out over the walled garden.
This is the original seventeenth century staircase with twisted balusters. Now we go upstairs
This next room on the ground floor has been described as a small sitting room, or study and displays some of the finest figurines from England and the continent in the eighteenth century. Some of the English makers are Bristol, Bow, Chelsea and Derby.The mirror between the windows is fine gilt gessor, or sconce, once equipped with branches for candles from 1715. The instrument is a 1612 harpsicord.
It now displays early Chinese ceramics some of which were imported into England in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
Next time we will climb the staircase and look around upstairs. Until then Happy Rambles.