Stair Parts Fig. 280
Stair Parts Fig. 281 Staircase at No. 35 Lincoln Inn fields London
Towards the close of the eighteenth century another form of staircase came into vogue. This consisted of a continuous flight of stone steps, often oval in plan, leading from floor to floor in one sweep. Each step rested on that below, and one of its ends was built into the wall, thereby obviating the necessity of any expedient for supporting the other end. By this means a free space was obtained beneath the staircase. The general effect, although light and sometimes graceful, was a little cold and meagre ; but it was quite in character with the rather severe schemes of decoration prevalent at the time (stair Parts Fig. 281).
Stair Parts Fig. 276 Doorway at Godmersham Park Kent
In the larger houses much attention was bestowed upon the doorways: there is a good example at Godmersham Park, in Kent (stair Parts Fig. 282), where the broken pediment affords space for the central feature of a design modelled in high relief. As here, so in many other instances, the door is of mahogany and the surrounding woodwork is painted white. The example from Honington Hall, in Warwickshire (Stair Parts Fig. 283), not only shows an important doorway, but also the domed and coffered ceiling of a lofty room, as well as walls with panels of plaster, and large pendants of fruit and birds in the manner of Grinling Gibbons. In houses of the early part of the eighteenth century there was often one room occupying two stories in height ; sometimes it was the hall, sometimes, as in this case, a saloon or drawing-room.
Stair Parts Fig. 283 Honinhton Hall Warwickshire
In smaller houses were such doorways as that at Bourdon
House, London (Stair Parts Fig. 284), where there is carving enough to impart interest to the design without over-weighting it; and at Seckford Hall, in Suffolk, is a simple but effective treatment (Stair Parts Fig. 285) which is well within the compass of an ordinary joiner. A great variety of effect can be obtained at small cost by dint of a little thought and a determination not to be too much bound by correct precedents. It is one of the failings of the ordinary eighteenth-century designer that he feared to depart from the patterns published in books.
Stair Parts Fig. 284 Doorway at Bourdon House Mayfair, London