E8: English Bedroom of the Georgian Period, 1760–75

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):

8: English Bedroom of the Georgian Period, 1760–75
In 1754 Thomas Chippendale published the first extensive book of currently fashionable furniture designs, The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Director. This publication and later editions made him so famous that his name was given to many mid-eighteenth-century English furniture styles. Admiring his entrepreneurial spirit, Mrs. Thorne noted, “Up to this time, the work of the cabinetmaker as an individual craftsman had received little recognition beyond a limited circle of customers, but Chippendale knew the art of advertising and his shop at No. 60 St. Martin’s Lane was a rendezvous for his fashionable clientele. All the chitchat and gossip of court was retailed amidst the engaging surroundings of beautiful furniture.” The Director included a wide range of elegant domestic furniture in a variety of styles of the Rococo period (see E-20: French Library of the Louis XV Period, c. 1720).
Chippendale’s book included designs with a Far Eastern flavor that came to be known as Chinese Chippendale. An example in this room is the chair to the left of the bed, with its straight, square legs and fretwork. The gold mirror on the right wall and the candle brackets on the left also derive from designs in Chippendale’s book. The source of the striking Chippendale bed, with its pagoda-style, carved canopy, was Percy Macquoid’s Dictionary of English Furniture (1924–27). This interior—especially the wallpaper, candlestand, and sconces—was inspired by a room originally in Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, that was installed in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The Chinese had begun to export painted wallpapers to the West in the mid-seventeenth century. They depicted scenes from daily life or flowering trees and birds with colorful plumage, like the paper in this interior.
The widespread interest in Asian art and motifs reflected in the appointments of this room and others (see E-6: English Library of the Queen Anne Period, 1702–50) stems from intensive trading with the Far East by many northern European countries. Mrs. Thorne gave much credit for the “Chinese craze” of this period to Sir William Chambers, architect and author of Designs for Chinese Buildings, published in 1757. The book had been inspired by several trips Chambers made to Asia as an employee of the Swedish East India Company. Chambers, who received many important commissions, collaborated with Chippendale on the design of furniture.
The elegant stucco work of the overmantel, with its curving, Rococo scrollwork, demonstrates a favorite eighteenth-century method of incorporating blanc-de-chine or polychrome Chinese porcelains into the décor. The fender, grate, and fire irons—all copied from examples of the period—incorporate Chinese fret designs. The torchères in the window bays would have functioned as candlestands. The commode in the left corner has ivory fittings, including a ewer and basin and covered urns. The candlesticks and dressing-table accessories were, according to Mrs. Thorne, “the tiniest silver pieces obtainable in London.”
This room measures 12 x 19 x 19 1/4 inches.