E13: English Rotunda and Library of the Regency Period, 1810–20

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):

13: English Rotunda and the Library of the Regency Period, 1810–20
“Biographers have laid much stress upon [the prince regent’s] amorous proclivities,” wrote Mrs. Thorne, “but we must give him credit for other interests. During the long period he was a strong force in England, he certainly set his seal upon the architectural development of London streets, parks, and his royal residences both in London and Brighton.”
English architecture and decorative arts during the period when George, Prince of Wales, became regent (he succeeded to the throne as George IV in 1820) were influenced by developments across the channel, where Napoleon was trying to revive the grandeur of Imperial Rome
(see E-26: French Anteroom of the Empire Period, c. 1810). Two of the chief exponents of this style in England were the architects Henry Holland and Sir John Soane. Each man represents a distinct design approach. Holland, who enjoyed many royal commissions, worked in an elaborate, extravagant manner on such buildings as Carlton House and the original Royal Pavilion at Brighton. While monumental in their proportions, Soane’s designs are more restrained. “To illustrate the Regency period at its best,” wrote Mrs. Thorne, “I have chosen the hall at Stone House, Lewisham, built by Soane. The dome ceiling, Greek frieze, and marble pillars create an appropriate setting for the echo of French Empire furniture, which distinguished the Regency period.”
The built-in bookcase dominating the library is modeled after an original in Kenwood, a famous London residence designed by Robert Adam in 1767. The furniture in the circular hall is meant to be of black lacquer or ebony ornamented with gilt or brass mounts and inlays as well as with variegated exotic hardwoods. The desk and three armchairs in the library illustrate the use of reddish mahogany.
The books have tooled leather bindings. The antique ivory statuettes on the mantel came from what Mrs. Thorne described as “a noted collection of eighteenth-century bibelots.”
The rotunda measures 16 x 22 x 19 inches.