92 
House & Garden 
I he Wood Carving of Grinling Gibbons 
(Continued from page 69) 
A typical example of Grinling Gibbons’ work is 
contained in this beautifully carved over-mantel 
decoration in which birds and flowers and fruit 
are fantastically arranged 
himself go see him. This was the first 
notice his Majesty ever had of Mr. 
Gibbon.” But it was not the last: Grin¬ 
ling Gibbons became master carver in 
wood to the King and served the crown 
until the time of George I, creating 
masterpieces in carving, making friends, 
marrying happily and waxing pros¬ 
perous. The portrait of Gibbons and 
his wife, painted by their friend John 
Closlerman, was engraved in mezzo¬ 
tint by John Smith. We have also 
a fine portrait of Grinling Gibbons 
painted by Sir Godfrey Kueller and 
engraved by Smith. 
Grinling Gibbons appears to have 
taken a swift leap from his apprentice¬ 
ship. Evelyn had introduced him to 
Hugh May, Sir Peter Lely, Samuel 
Pepys and others, and in turn he was 
introduced to Sir Christopher Wren, 
then busily engaged with the rebuild¬ 
ing of the London churches after the 
disastrous fire of 1666. Wren im¬ 
mediately gave Gibbons employment 
at Windsor, and later at St. James 
Church in Piccadilly and at St. Paul's 
Cathedral. By 1678 Gibbons was 
carving the chimney-pieces for the 
Queen’s Privy Chamber and for the 
King’s Drawing Room. The superb 
reredos which Gibbons carved for St. 
James Church some years later es¬ 
tablished his reputation. This was 
carved in cedar over a marble carved 
Cena. Here we find a perfect ex¬ 
ample in carved wood of the rainceaux 
treatment so skillfully handled by Gib¬ 
bons and so often employed by him. 
Here, as elsewhere, the detail is sharp¬ 
ly defined and there has been, as an 
English writer has pointed out, no de¬ 
parture from truth therein, floral or 
anatomical. 
The work on the choir stalls of St. 
Paul’s is likewise a monument to 
Gibbons’ fame, even though a necessi¬ 
tated architectural arrangement in 
later years completely altered the orig¬ 
inal effect of the choir. Gibbons 
received £210 for carving the forty- 
two cherub heads—what would they 
not bring now at an art sale!—and 
some £1,560 for the entire work, in¬ 
clusive. As Tipping says, “Inigo Jones 
originated a style, Gibbons a new man¬ 
ner of treating it.” The heaviness 
of the swagging in carving before Gib¬ 
bons appeared gave way immediately 
to his greater refinement and his work 
was one of the glories of the later 
English renaissance. Although Eng¬ 
land’s debt to the Italian renaissance 
was tremendous, still England’s own 
originality was shown in the replac¬ 
ing of Italian balusters with carved 
and pierced panels of woodwork. 
We are fortunate in having in 
America a few authentic works from 
Grinling Gibbons’ atelier. The most 
important of these is the carved and 
gilded wood over-mantel formerly at 
Holme Lacy in England. This is to 
be seen in the Metropolitan Museum 
of Art, New York, as also is a lime- 
wood panel of the Royal Arms. Lime- 
wood was the favorite material em¬ 
ployed by Gibbons in his carving of 
natural objects. 
Here reproduced is Grinling Gib¬ 
bons’ fine mantel for Belton House 
one somewhat resembling the Holme 
Lacy mantel and yet another on the 
order of the famous carved mantel in 
the dining room at Lyme Park. “The 
Four Seasons” carved panels from Bel¬ 
ton House are shown as examples of 
18th Century wood carving of high 
order. While Grinling Gibbons is a 
towering figure in the art of English 
wood carving, his compeers reached to 
fine achievement. It is, indeed, often 
difficult to determine all that may be 
ascribed to Gibbons without question. 
The impress of his style so influenced 
others that one frequently finds all the 
superior woodwork of Grinling Gib¬ 
bons time classed as his own. Watson 
and Chatsworth and even others did in 
their own works closely approach that 
of the master, but even their hands, 
it seems to me, did not bring forth 
from the wood such exquisite forms as 
were evoked by the genius of Grin¬ 
ling Gibbons. How r ever, it is inter¬ 
esting to compare the work of the 
various master carvers of these years 
of the early reign of Queen Anne and 
of the first years of the reign of Wil¬ 
liam and Mary, when this art was in 
its heyday. Gibbons’ last work in 
Queen Anne’s reign appears to have 
been the chapel carvings for Hampton 
Court, executed in 1710. Windsor, 
Kensington, Whitehall, Trinity Col¬ 
lege at Cambridge, Chatsworth,’ South- 
wick and Petworth all received the 
mark of Gibbons’ incomparable geni¬ 
us, nor must it be forgotten that he 
produced other sculptural works of no 
mean order: his monument to Newton 
in Westminster Abbey and the bronze 
statue of James II in Whitehall. 
If Grinling Gibbons lived to see 
newer “fashions” come into vogue, at 
least he must have felt that his own 
work had been appreciated and would 
endure. I like to remember that he 
left the pompous past in woodwork 
and carved a perfect cluster of Eng¬ 
lish primroses on a block of lime. 
When You Plan Your Garden 
(Continued from page 6l ) 
To get back to the question of sup¬ 
ports, piers are built up of brick, 
stone, tile or concrete. They are usually 
18" square; never less than that. 
They are never tapered. Being free 
from any refined, ornamental detail, 
piers should be used in pergolas and 
gardens whose adjoining house is de¬ 
signed in an architectural style like¬ 
wise free from refined ornamental 
detail. 
Where such detail exists in the ar¬ 
chitecture of the house, as in some 
Colonial and Georgian types, the ar¬ 
bors or pergolas in the garden should 
be supported by columns. The order 
used in the columns of the pergola 
should harmonize with that used in 
the columns and pilasters on the house. 
It need not be the same order, for 
while a graceful modification of the 
Corinthian is often used on Colonial 
and Georgian houses, that particular 
capital is hardly suitable for an ar¬ 
bor however sophisticated. It is advis¬ 
able simply to preserve a similarity of 
treatment, and this can be done by 
keeping the corresponding architectural 
features of the pergola and the house 
at the same scale, in the same color, 
and in as nearly the same character 
as it is possible to devise it. 
Thus it will be seen that the pergola, 
if it have any architectural ambition 
whatsoever, being something of an 
openwork building itself, and being in 
close proximity to the house of which 
it is an accessory, must, more than 
any other element of the garden, con¬ 
form in style to the house. This point 
is emphasized because it is one that 
matters extremely in the final ap¬ 
pearance of the two things when seen 
together. It is very difficult to avoid 
an effect of grotesqueness when, for 
example, the garden of a modest 
house in the English cottage style is 
set with an arbor made up of heavy 
Doric columns and elaborately cut 
beam ends. When it is necessary to 
erect an inexpensive arbor in the gar¬ 
den of a formally designed house it 
is wise, rather than to do one in the 
rustic manner or in stained, square 
cut timbers, to sidestep any architec¬ 
tural comparison by making it the 
simplest kind of support which will 
be almost entirely hidden by a lux¬ 
uriant covering of vines. 
In this general connection it may 
be noted that many ready-made 
arbors and pergolas are being built in 
a wude variety of styles and sizes 
from which a suitable choice can 
easily be made where it is not con¬ 
venient to have the thing expressly 
designed. It is wise, in such a case, 
to select the particular type before 
completing its setting in the garden. 
Otherwise there is apt to be an awk¬ 
ward discrepancy when the knock¬ 
down structure arrives and is fitted 
into its place. 
While the “roofs” of all arbors and 
pergolas are open and never shingled 
or covered with any solid sheathing, 
they need not always be perfectly 
flat, but may be hipped or gabled. 
In a long pergola that closes an en¬ 
tire side or end of a garden it is 
sometimes advisable, in order to 
avoid a too monotonous line, to accent 
the central section or the ends by 
this device, and by raising it at these 
important points give it a more in¬ 
teresting character. 
It has been suggested before that 
there are two general types of arbors 
and that they function in entirely 
different ways. The arbor that serves 
as a shelter for a particular spot in 
the garden should be located at the 
end of the garden farthest from the 
house from where a view of both 
the house and the garden may be 
obtained and toward which the main 
lines of the garden should lead. 
Exceptions to this rule generally occur 
in the gardens that fall away from 
the house and because of the steep 
slope are invisible from the house. In 
such a case the arbor might be placed 
on the crest of the slope where it 
will act as a sort of connecting link. 
Arbors or pergolas of the other type 
are designed to cover a path or form 
at the same time a shelter and an en¬ 
closure for one side of the garden. 
Because of this purpose they are usu¬ 
ally quite long, and because of their 
length it is important that their ends 
do not hang loosely without some 
•very definitely suggested termination 
such as a gateway, wall, or extended 
path. 
No other feature of the garden can 
make or mar the appearance of the 
scheme as effectively as the arbor. 
If it is well designed and suitably lo¬ 
cated it will brighten the most 
mediocre layout. If its design and 
position are not thoughtfully con¬ 
sidered no garden will be good enough 
to withstand the harm it can do. 
