E-2: English Bedchamber of the Jacobean or Stuart Period, 1603-88

Narcissa Niblack Thorne, creator of the Thorne Rooms, combined a deep knowledge of design history with a vivid imaginative sensibility. In the 1930s, she assembled a team of skilled artisans in Chicago to construct a series of intricately detailed interiors at the scale of one inch to one foot (1:12).

Conceived as a visual history of interior design, the rooms are at once scholarly and inventive. Meticulously researched and carefully composed, they balance historical accuracy with artistic interpretation. Each atmospheric interior feels like a stage set awaiting its occupants—two parts fantasy, one part history, and entirely absorbing.

Entry from Fannia Weingartner, Miniature Rooms: The Thorne Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago, 2nd ed. (The Art Institute of Chicago, 2004):

2: English Bedchamber of the Jacobean or Stuart Period, 1603–88
The eighty-five years between the accession to the throne of the first Stuart king, James I, in 1603 and the expulsion of James II in 1688 encompassed the beheading of Charles I, eleven years of the Puritan Commonwealth under the dictatorship of Oliver Cromwell, the exuberant period of the Restoration under Charles II (brought back from exile in France), and the Glorious Revolution during which James II was deposed and William of Orange and Mary (a Stuart) ascended to the throne. The term Jacobean, which is given to this period, comes from Jacobus, the Latin origin of the name James.
Mrs. Thorne was impressed by the fine Jacobean rooms at Knole Castle, Kent, which was presented to Thomas Sackville by his cousin Elizabeth I. Architecturally, this bedchamber reproduces rather faithfully the paneled walls, window recess, and mantel from what is known as the Spangled Bedroom at Knole. The taste for ornate, carved decoration – inherited from the Elizabethan period – is seen in the fireplace, window embrasures, and furniture.
The press cupboard to the left of the fireplace and the chest to the right of the bed are early Jacobean, but much of the remaining furniture is of a later date. For example, the high-canopied bed, draped in damask, is in the style introduced to England by Charles II and his court, and reflects the influence of their exile in France, where the nobility received callers while abed. The original bed in the Knole bedchamber, which inspired this interior, sported curtains with appliqué strapwork decorated with metallic spangles, from which that room derived its name.
The dressing table in front of the window is also of the later Jacobean period; its fittings too bear a close resemblance to those at Knole. After the mid-seventeenth century, walnut became the most fashionable wood for furniture. The daybed derives from a walnut original from about 1670, and the high-back chair between the bed and the chest after a model of 1688.
The needlepoint picture above the prie-dieu to the right of the fireplace and the tapestry above the cupboard were made in Vienna; the silver pieces and candlestick on the dressing table and on the stands, as well as the bowl and ewer on the table to the left of the bed, were made in England.
The flowers and the view through the window reflect Mrs. Thorne’s delight in the gardens at Knole. “Some friends have asked me why I put flowers in my early English room—they rather doubted this delicate touch,” she wrote, “so I was particularly pleased to see in a book on Life in Elizabethan Days this sentence, ‘The coming of the Renaissance accentuated all the natural human love of flowers and greenery.’” She had heard as well that Elizabeth I had planted a rose bush outside the Spangled Bedroom at Knole, and through the centuries the gardeners had continued to cultivate Queen Elizabeth roses.
This room measures 17 x 27 1/2 x 24 1/4 inches.