Design for a chimneypiece at Briggens, Hertfordshire

A rare example of an architectural design by Sir James Thornhill (1675-1734), History Painter in Ordinary and Serjeant Painter to George I, and the leading decorative painter of his day. The drawing relates to a little-known commission by Thornhill for which apparently no other drawings survive. Briggens, at Stanstead Abbots, Hertfordshire, was begun in 1719 by the mason Christopher Cass (1678-1834) for the South Sea Company director Robert Chester, who was arrested, owing Cass £1,000, when the South Sea Bubble burst in 1720. The house still stands, but has been so much altered that no original interiors survive. On the back of the drawing are sketches for the Great Parlour at Luxborough, of which no other details are known