A25: Virginia Drawing Room, 1755

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):

25: Virginia Drawing Room, 1755
This model, like the preceding one, is based on an interior from Carter’s Grove, in this case, the southeast drawing room. Once again, the most striking feature is the finely executed paneling which, in the original, was made of native walnut and pine. Especially noteworthy is the treatment of the fireplace wall, which combines the raised paneling used throughout the room with a white marble mantel framed by stately pilasters. The cornice is denticulated.
Mrs. Thorne furnished this interior with reproductions of both English and American Chippendale designs, depicted in the reference works she used most frequently. The desk, for example, is adapted from a piece dating from about 1740 illustrated in Percy Macquoid’s Dictionary of English Furniture (1924), although Mrs. Thorne omitted the paw feet and changed the side paneling. The Chippendale corner chair next to the desk reflects a model produced in North America between 1755 and 1785. The two chests flanking the door on the left wall are swellfront New England designs dating from around 1780. The tea table next to the fireplace at the left combines elements from several Colonial prototypes. In front of the window in the right corner stands an embroidery frame with a piece of partially completed work. The chandelier is copied from one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The convex mirror over the mantel is in the Empire style of a much later period.
With its fine paneling, stately furniture, and decorative porcelains, this interior attempts to convey the comfortable elegance of the original drawing room in Carter’s Grove. Carter Burwell had been reared in the Colonial equivalent of an aristocratic tradition, and when he planned his house he chose the best models available. Richard Baylis, who came with his family from England to supervise the three-year-long task of paneling the house by the James River, justified his employer’s faith in every way. More than two hundred years after it was built, the interior of Carter’s Grove continues to evoke the admiration of its many visitors.
This room measures 13 3/4 x 20 1/4 x 18 1/4 inches.