Case Study

The State Drawing Room Fireplace, Stowe House.

Our new approach to conservation work in wood has immediately attracted a great deal of interest. None more so than at Stowe House, where we have begun a series of major commissions, reinstating lost fire surrounds and overmantels as part of a huge restoration of their State Dining and Drawing Rooms.

We have now completed and installed the first of these works; the hugely ornate marbled fire surround in the State Drawing Room designed by Vincenzo Valdrè.

With the original now located in Spain, we were tasked with creating a replacement that matched the original in both its craftsmanship and elaborate detail.

Working with a finely detailed surface scan, we created a full 3D digital production model.

This versatile core model was then used to produce scale drawings, maquettes and a project management workflow for the project.

It also drove the CNC cutting of each component part down to a near-form, ready for hand carving.

With ornate forms covering almost the entire surface, this digitally led process brought remarkable accuracy and efficiency to the project.

This digital workflow was underpinned by a deep understanding of traditional craftsmanship and conservation work. Using classic joinery techniques and extensive knowledge of working with historic wood, a construction was devised that would both match the original design and allow the wooden structure to settle as it aged.

Each component part was then expertly hand carved, taking it from its CNC-cut near-form, to a finely detailed and authentically hand carved finish.

The result is a fire surround of exceptional quality, with craftsmanship that stands alongside that of the original. The carved surface is a precise match to the original, with a finely detailed finish, rich in the visual language of traditional craft.

Alongside our production of the fireplace, we drew on our extensive network of trusted craftspeople to oversee the casting of brassframes (using digitally modelled and 3D printed parts for lost wax casting) and the application of the marble paint effects.

In an industry prone to running over time with spiralling costs along the way, our digitally led project management and CNC workflow brought an uncommon predictability and certainty to the project. Despite the instability of the surrounding world, we were able to deliver the project exactly on time, precisely on budget and exceeding the trust’s expectations on quality.