Thomas Chippendale Rosewood Bookcase

The restoration of the Chippendale Rosewood Bookcase will shortly be carried out by James Hardie of Edinburgh.

Rather excitingly, it is planned that the restoration will be undertaken in situ, in full view of the public. To find out more about this piece, click here.

Artefacts in this room

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Thomas Chippendale Sofas and Armchairs

The Two Chippendale sofas and six Chippendale armchairs are in the process of a complete restoration by Peter Holmes of Arlington Conservation in London.

After the frames have been carefully restored, the furniture will then be reupholstered and recovered by Barry Ansell of RD Robins Upholsterers in London. The fabric to be used, an 18th Century style blue silk damask, is being newly woven by Richard Humphries of London.

The chosen pattern has been carefully reconstructed from a surviving 18 Century silk damask chair cover at Dumfries House. This pattern is not recorded anywhere, and so it shall be known henceforth as the Dumfries House pattern. The furniture will be complemented by a set of three festooned blue silk damask curtains woven to the same technique using the Dumfries House pattern.

Artefacts in this room

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Mahogany Breakfast Table

Another important and extremely functional piece is the mahogany breakfast table by Samuel Smith based on a Chippendale design, with an exquisitely fretted area underneath.

Should you wish to breakfast slowly, and perhaps read a newspaper, or converse with your guests, the low table with food on it may well prove too much of a temptation for any family dogs in the room if you turn your back on it. However, the carved area underneath actually has a door which you can open and put your plate of food inside, thus preserving it from the slavering chops of your ‘faithful’ hound. A beautiful and amusing combination of style and function!

Artefacts in this room

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Thomas Whitty Axminster Carpet

Future plans also include the restoration of the outstandingly important 18th Century Axminster carpet which has recently been bedded on a protective underlay.

This carpet is one of the earliest datable examples to have survived from the formative years at Axminster and was commissioned for the Drawing Room at Dumfries House. In a marvellously early example of thrift, it was shipped up separately from another, identical carpet, which the surviving invoice tells us was part of a Buy One – Get One Half Price deal! At £69 for the first one, this represents a saving of a large sum of money for the day. This is, of course, explained by the fact that they were both worked to the same design as a pair, so that the cartoon only need to be paid for once.

Showing a remarkable talent for survival, this carpet was stored for quite a long period in the Dumfries House wine cellar, out of direct light, from where it was retrieved in time for the public opening of the house in 2008. This might explain why the colours in some areas still pretty strong.

The carpet signifies the growing 18th century interest in exotic botany, as it includes a flowering cactus. The carpet dates from before Whitty’s collaboration with Robert Adam on the design of carpets. However, it is a wonderful example of a colourful, animated and sumptuous looking rococo piece of design.

Artefacts in this room

The story of the Blue Drawing Room

South-facing and entered via the main hall, the Blue Drawing Room was one of the key rooms of the original 18th Century house

The drawing room served, to a certain extent, as a platform for the owner to parade his newly acquired furniture; although at this period in time, the bedroom was still the main room for receiving guests and so would have been where the better, more expensive furniture would have been located.

However, with our 21st Century sensibilities, we seldom receive guest in our bedrooms unless we are teenagers, and so it feels right to our own taste that perhaps the most iconic piece of furniture in Dumfries House is no longer in the bedroom, but in the Blue Drawing Room. This is, of course, the Thomas Chippendale Rosewood Bookcase.

Although not necessarily the first choice for receiving guests in the mid 18th Century, the Blue Drawing Room is no slouch, and its abundance of natural light and generous proportions give the room a sense of occasion. This is enhanced by the spectacular rococo plaster ceiling above you, and the original Axminster carpet below you.

Such a setting made this room the favourite place for the Dowager Duchess, Lady Eileen to receive guests. The last permanent resident of the House, she would regularly play bridge with friends here, and as an avid fan of horse racing had a television installed in the centre window alcove.

The room, like other rooms in homes around the world, has seen subtle alterations over the centuries which reflect the changing taste and usage of the house’s successive owners, with furnishings moved around the house. One particular case concerns the two Chippendale sofas and six Chippendale armchairs which have recently been completely restored by Peter Holmes of Arlington Conservation in London.

With all the restoration work on the artefacts carefully researched and put together, this room once again conveys a strong sense of the 18th Century character of the Blue Drawing Room.

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