Robert Adam and Kedleston: The Making of a Neo-classical Masterpiece [antikvár]

As one of the greatest of all English country houses, it was appropriate that Kedleston should be well represented in the recent Treasure Houses of Britain exhibition, held at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. One of John Linnell's huge sofas from the Drawing Room, carved with near-life-size mermaids and tritons, crossed the Atlantic to become the largest single piece of furniture in the show; "Athenian" Stuart's tripod perfume-burner and Diederich Nicolaus Anderson's magnificent plate-warmer, from the Dining Room, formed the centrepiece of the 18th-century display of plate - dividing the earlier Rococo pieces from the later Neoclassical; and an early photograph of Lord Curzon of Kedleston as Viceroy of India, in a wonderfully carved ivory frame, evoked the splendour of the Raj in the final gallerj'. But perhaps the least-known, and most beautiful, of all the items lent from the house was anexquisite watercolour by Robert Adam, a design for a "Painted Breakfasting Room" (no. 41), that showed one of Britain's greatest architects at the height of his powers.The great collection of architectural drawings at Kedleston - though one of the finest in any country house - has until now remained something of a hidden treasure, known only to a small circle oi' scholars. A few of them, like "Athenian" Stuart's designs for a "great room" (nos. 11-14) and Adam's design for the sideboard niche in the Dining Room (no. 15), have been published, and others have been shown from time to time in the Indian Museum below the Saloon at Kedleston. But the first serious study of the drawings, relating them to documents in the remarkably complete family archive, has been undertaken only in the last ten years by Mr Leslie Harris.Mr Harris's researches into the history of the house