Wall Panelling Corporation

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Detail of Shell in Plasterwork

c. 1701
MOMPERSON HOUSE, SALISBURY

 

This little two-panel door with its rail between the panels is in a charming late 17th or very early 18th century house, Wadfield in Gloucestershire. The door is light, possibly made from pine or cedar and painted white as is the rest of the wall panelling. This is in all probability the work of a country cabinetmaker who was familiar with the new type of panel shapes but was not working with the fashionable type of thick wood. He therefore `added' the moulding round the panels and two strips the length of the door on both sides which gives the door a certain thickness.

 

 

BISHOP'S PALACE, SALISBURY
c. 1701

 

Doors, generally speaking, of the late Stuart interiors design period were much heavier than those of an earlier date. This in part was due to the new fashion in wall panelling which had a very much bolder and deeper moulding and therefore had to be carved from much thicker wood.

It was also due to the increasing use of imported hard-woods particularly mahogany, which, being much bigger trees, were brought to England in larger planks or sections than any of our indigenous trees. Mahogany, which is one of the heaviest woods in the world, was brought to England sometime between 1660-1670. Dr. Gibbons, the famous son of a famous organist, one of the earliest experimentalists in this new wood, had intended to use mahogany in the con­struction of his new house but owing to the extreme hardness of the wood the workmen declined to use it. Its beauty of grain, however, was such that after the first tentative experiment (a candle-box for Dr. Gibbons carved by a cabinet-maker named Wollaston) it was quickly adopted by the finer craftsmen of the time and, later when its values were fully appreciated, was used parti­cularly for veneer work.