A23: Virginia Drawing Room, 1754

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):

23: Virginia Drawing Room, 1754
Another Virginia interior from the mid-eighteenth century, this model was inspired by the drawing room of Wilton, a ten-room Georgian house known today for its outstanding brickwork and built by William Randolph III along the James River south of Richmond. Although its architect is unknown, the residence has been attributed to Richard Taliaferro, designer of the George Wythe house in Williamsburg, which it strongly resembles. Frequented by such distinguished guests as George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Thomas Jefferson (a Randolph on his mother’s side), Wilton survived the Civil War and a succession of owners relatively intact. In 1923, however, its site threatened by industrial encroachment, the house was in danger of being dismantled. It was saved by the Virginia chapter of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, which purchased it and moved it to another location six miles upriver. Reconstructed and refurnished with the help of family inventories, Wilton is now open to the public.
Wilton is notable particularly for the paneling that graces every room and for its handsome cornices with their dentil moldings. Although Mrs. Thorne omitted this latter detail, she reproduced here the chief architectural features of the back wall of the original drawing room, including the fluted pilasters of the fireplace and flanking arches. At Wilton, however, alcoves intervene between the archways and the windows. The marble mantel of the model imitates the original, which was English in style. The elaborate plasterwork of the ceiling in Mrs. Thorne’s interior reflects a later manner.
The furniture reproduced by Mrs. Thorne here is primarily in the Queen Anne style (see E–6: English Library of the Queen Anne Period, 1702–50), which remained in vogue in the Colonies until the last quarter of the eighteenth century. The most striking pieces are the “japanned” high chest of drawers along the left wall and the low chest of drawers to the left of the doorway, inspired by American examples of the 1730s and 1740s. “Japanning” was a method of imitating Asian lacquering, which involved the application to wood of many layers of a compound of seedlac or shellac dissolved in spirits of wine and most often colored black, red, or dark green. The decorations were outlined in gold size, built up, then colored and gilt. Mrs. Thorne added a number of intimate touches to this room, including the tea table set with a service, and a delicate birdcage complete with three canaries. As a whole, the interior conveys a sense of the elegance and comfort enjoyed by the owners of the James River plantations of Virginia.
This room measures 12 x 19 5/8 x 22 inches.