Interior. General view of Great Stair. Digital image of G 85140 PO.

Description Interior. General view of Great Stair. Digital image of G 85140 PO.

Date c. 1900

Collection Collection of photographs from Country Life, publishers, London, England

Catalogue Number SC 755929

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copy of G 85140 PO

Scope and Content Black Marble staircase in Hamilton Palace (site), Hamilton, South Lanarkshire This bracketed double staircase was commissioned from the London Marble & Stone Working Company, which had supplied the two colossal chimneypieces and door surrounds for the new entrance hall on the first floor in the mid-1830s. David Hamilton's initial designs were developed by William Field, the superintendent of the company, and the parts were shipped up to Hamilton (via Leith and Port Dundas) between 1840 and 1845, at a total cost of over £9,000. The first-floor passageway appeared to be supported by two huge bronze male figures, which are referred to as caryatids (female figures) in the contemporary correspondence but are actually atlantids (after Atlas, who carried the world on his shoulders). They were ordered from the Parisian founder Louis Soyer and cost over 34,000 francs in 1842. Much of the black marble staircase has been acquired by the Museums of South Lanarkshire, but the atlantids are said to have been melted down. Alexander, 10th Duke of Hamilton, 'finished' the new extension and the refurbishment of Hamilton Palace with an extremely impressive grand staircase of Irish black marble that connected the ground and first floors. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/755929

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap