Parlour and Dining room -
Georgian
House
Museum
7 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh,
Scotland
Official
Website - Georgian House Museum
On this page, below:
Parlour
(back drawing room) "The
parlour, or back drawing room, as more informal and intimate than the
drawing room. It was essentially a room to be lived in, with a central
table and chairs grouped around it where members of the family could
read, do needlework, take tea, and so forth." - "The Georgian
House," Introduction. Brochure sold at the museum. [Note:
This differs from parlor descriptions of Victorian homes
in US where drawing rooms were no longer used; American parlors
replaced
drawing rooms.]
![]() The
chimneypiece [fireplace]
is slightly earlier than the house, and, like
the one in the bedchamber, came from Tarvit House.
... Five fireplace details below:
![]() Fireplace detail #1 ![]() Fireplace detail #2 - Note firescreen in front of the fireplace ![]() Fireplace detail #3 - Rope design on edge of the mantle ... Frieze decorated with flutes, rosettes, and foliated ovals ... Stone surround ![]() Fireplace detail #4 - Pendant bellflowers ![]() Fireplace detail #5 - Hob grate ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Early nineteenth century chandelier ![]() Bookcase ... Heriz carpet ![]() Bureau-bookcase "In the early
18th century one form of bureau consisted of a bank of drawers below a
sloping writing flap, the whole piece resting on cabriole
legs. Many bureaus of this period and earlier were surmounted by a
bookcase with one or two doors, which were sometimes glazed. The
Dutch were quick to copy this idea, and thus the bureau-bookcase,
often fitted with an ingenious combination of drawers and compartments,
spread to other parts of Europe." - Encyclopędia
Britannica: Bureau
Detail below:
![]() Pull-out slides ... Oval mounts with bail handles ... Escutcheons |
Dining
room![]() Details below: ![]() Chandelier ![]() Classical scene on chimneypiece mirror panel ("chimney glass") which dates from the Regency period (1811-1820) ... Another photo angle below: ![]() Lyres and wreathes on frieze ![]() Traditional black chimneypiece (American term: fireplace) is the only one in the house to survive in situ. Coal scuttle with Chinoiserie ornamentation ... Note wooden plate storage box on floor at right ![]() Coal scuttle with Chinoiserie ornamentation ... Roman urn decorated with bellflower swag ... Brass fender ![]() Ceramic tile fireback ![]() Coal scuttle with Chinoiserie ornamentation ![]() China ![]() Woodwork stained and grained to look like mahogany ... ![]() Veneer ![]() Traditional Turkish rug ... Hepplewhite(?) sideboard ... Two details below: ![]() Hepplewhite sideboard detail #1 - Oval mounts with bail handles ... Stringing ... Center compartment: Pewter chamber pot for the gentlemen to use when the ladies had withdrawn after dinner ... Tambour sliding doors ![]() Hepplewhite sideboard detail #2 ![]() Knife box "Until
the last decades of the seventeenth century, dinner guests brought
their own cutlery when invited to a meal, most often just a knife,
though a few of the most sophisticated might also bring a fork. It
would never occur to a host in the early decades of the seventeenth
century to provide his guests with eating utensils. Yet, by 1820, the
majority of hosts who held regular dinner parties would have owned a
selection of table silver which could easily include well over a
thousand separate pieces." - The
Regency Redingote (online Jan. 2018)
![]() Knife box ![]() Interior pocket or privacy shutters folded into the wall |