E12: English Drawing Room of the Georgian Period, c. 1800

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):

12: English Drawing Room of the Georgian Period, c. 1800
Mrs. Thorne created this interior as a setting for the work of Thomas Sheraton, whom she regarded as having designed “the most exquisite furniture in the history of English mobiliary art.” Showing the influence of Adam and his contemporaries in the decoration of the mantelpiece, the slender pilasters above the fireplace, and the moldings, Mrs. Thorne intended the room to evoke “the atmosphere of those country villages of late eighteenth-century England, which were peopled with the hypersensitive women and overindulged and overestimated men whom Jane Austen immortalized.”
With the exception of the two side chairs flanking the cabinet, all the furniture reflects the Neoclassical types associated with the designs published by Sheraton in his Cabinet-maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing-Book of 1791. In general, what is referred to as “Sheraton” furniture (before the style came under the influence of the French Empire manner [see E-26: French Anteroom of the Empire Period, c. 1810]) is distinguished by its lightness in weight and color. His designs reveal a penchant for simple shapes combined with either painted or inlaid patterns that are at once elegant and elaborate. Satinwood, sycamore, and other light-colored woods supplemented or replaced mahogany at this time. Satinwood veneers lent themselves to marquetry and to the incorporation of the kind of elegant scroll painting seen on the cabinet against the left wall and on the harpsichord.
The furniture in this interior was made in England. The harpsichord is strung with wires attached to ivory keys that move up and down. A small violin lies in the case on the window seat. The two sconces consist of fine pieces of gilt bronze (ormolu) inset with Wedgwood blue-and-white jasperware. The hanging shelf holds books and porcelain, including miniature reproductions of figures from the Chelsea porcelain factory. A delicate blue-and-white tea set rests on the pedestal table before the fireplace. Standing in front of the bay window is a sewing table decorated with marquetry and painting. Through the door to the left is a room furnished with a settee and a screen.
This room measures 11 1/4 x 19 x 16 1/2 inches.