Copyright (c) 2013 Mathew Jenkins
The early Georgian style-although so little due to the personal influence of the first two Hanoverian kings-coincides closely with their reigns, and covers the space of forty years between about 1720 and 1760. George I.-who, as we are told, had no regard for the English and was almost entirely ignorant of the language-certainly never attempted any encouragement of the arts in England, but through no merit of his, the definitely Georgian style in architecture and decoration developed not long after his accession, and continued through the reign of the second George until the innovations of Robert Adam, which were almost exactly coincident with the accession of George III. The name, therefore, may be considered as marking a date.
The wealthy and cultured class was a comparatively large one in England compared with the other nations_ of Europe. Defoe's tour leaves a strong impression of the wealth that had come to the country since the Revolution. There was an extraordinary extension of commerce and enterprise, and the merchants of Turkey, East India, and the South Sea became increasingly influential. The Army and Navy, which became permanent institutions early in the eighteenth century, contributed to the stability of trade abroad, and the foundation of the Bank of England was a landmark -in the financial history of the country. One of the greatest houses in England, Wanted, was built by the parvenu Sir- Richard Child, and Bubb Dodington's town and country houses appear to have been among the finest of the period. " All the world was mad on building as far as they could reach," as Vanbrugh tells his friend Lord Carlisle in 1721, and this limit was often over-stepped, since we hear of many who over-built themselves and whose houses remained unfinished, or were sold for the sake of their building materials.
That the reigning style should be Italian is due to the influence of the ever-increasing number of aristocratic amateurs who made the Grand Tour in the peaceful days of the early George's. It would be difficult to over-estimate the importance of this class, both as patrons and leaders of fashion, at a time when a knowledge of architecture was no uncommon accomplishment among men of leisure. The Englishman of this class was to a great extent thrown back upon the patronage and enjoyment of art if he happened to have tastes above the fox-hunting Squire ' Westerns of the day, or took no part in politics. A political career was, indeed, almost impossible under the jealous domination of Sir Robert Walpole, while under that great peace minister there was small chance of a military one. But there remained art-in a wide sense including the study of architecture, the gathering of a collection of pictures (preferably Italian), the patronage of artists and singers and of architects, the building of a great house which should be a monument, a magnum opus. Vanbrugh's patrons, the Earl of Manchester and the Duke of Marlborough, who were abroad on public business in the early years of the eighteenth century, showed their practical interest in the furnishing and building of their houses in their correspondence.
The amateur and the amateur architect of the early Georgian period were much more influential. Of Henry, ninth Earl of Pembroke" who had some claim to be considered an amateur architect, Hoarse Walpole wrote that "no man had a purer taste in building." Lord Burlington spent "large sums in contributing to public works, and was known to choose that the expense should fall on himself rather than that his country should be deprived of some beautiful edifice." His enthusiasm involved him in debt, and this was also the case with the less magnificent Sir Thomas Robinson I of Rokeby-"Long Sir Thomas" another devout Palladian and amateur architect, who rebuilt the mansion of Rokeby. Both these men designed buildings; while there ii no design to the credit of Thomas Coke, the first Lord Leicester, who, however, had "such a delight and passion for architecture," says Brettingham, to fifty thousand pounds' expense, and some others of less value: This was our joint study and amusement in the country." Lord Chesterfield again spent both his time and money on the building of Chesterfield House in South Audley Street, where he boasted that the Library was the finest room in London. But besides these well-known personages the less famous amateurs had a voice in the building of their houses, for "in England, more than in any other country, every man would fain be his own architect," and the result is a very individual and personal quality in great and small English houses.
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The Woodcarvers Guild is proud to provide this history of Georgian design through Mathew Jenkins who has been with the company for a short time and is delving into furnitures history and divine roots. http://woodcarversguild.com/
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