SALOON
Perhaps the grandest room in the house, the Saloon is hung with a sumptuous red cotton Damask. This is the colour scheme originally used by the Fairfaxes when they moved into Fairfax House in 1762; however, they seem to have tired of it after a few years, and the colour scheme was changed to in 1765 to a more placid 'sky blue'.
The furniture from the Noel Terry Collection in the Saloon dates from the mid-eighteenth century and is of the highest quality, including superb pieces from the workshops of Chippendale, Gordon & Tait and Ince & Mayhew. Among the more unusual items of furniture in this room are two matching tripod tables, richly carved and decorated, with hexagonal tops featuring six circular recesses, possibly for bowls or drinking vessels. They have been described as 'Chocolate Tables', the suggestion being that they were used for the serving of drinking chocolate, but their true function remains a mystery.
There are two superb clocks in this room, the older being the longcase clock by Joseph Windmills, with its intricate 'seaweed' marquetry and elegant face with pierced hands, which dates from c.1705-1710. On the mantleshelf stands an 8-day bracket clock in an ebony case, by the York clockmaker Henry Hindley.
Above the fireplace is a painting known as The Nollekens Conversation Piece by Joseph Francis Nollekens (1702-1748), dated 1740, showing the Tylney family in the saloon at Wanstead House in north London (demolished 1822). This painting provides an indication of the way in which a room such as this would have been used in the Georgian period: for family entertainment and recreation, and intimate socializing with friends.
In the Fairfaxes' Saloon, a tea party has been prepared: on an elaborate tray top table a Chinese export teaset has been laid out and a silver kettle for hot water is placed ready on its elegant mahogany stand. The tea caddy sits on the table, waiting for Lady Anne Fairfax to unlock it and mix the leaf tea in the pot. Tea was a very expensive luxury in the eighteenth century, and was always kept in securely lockable caddies. Only the lady of the house would have a key to the tea caddy, which she kept with her, hanging with the other household keys from her belt.
Music was an important part of eighteenth-century 'Polite Society', and musical entertainment would have been a feature of the socializing that went on in this room. The importance of music is symbolized by the presence of a musical score carved into the stucco of the Saloon ceiling; the piece of music represented has been identified as Belinda and Amelia, published in the Universal Magazine in 1758.
In the twentieth century the saloon and the adjoining rooms formed part of a ballroom, and a dancing school was operating in the room as recently as 1980. To create this large unimpeded space the walls at either end of the Saloon had been taken down, and had to be re-instated as part of the 1982-4 restoration. The original fireplace in the Saloon had been removed at the same time, and was replaced by the present fireplace which may have begun its life in a house in Mayfair, London. This elegant fireplace in Siena and Statuary marble with its well-proportioned ionic columns is similar to that originally in this room, except that the centre tablet of the original fireplace had the figure of Narcissus gazing at his reflection in a pool of water rather than the present carved floral garland.
MORE ABOUT THE SALOON
Chinese Dragon Dish
The dragon, symbol of temporal power in Chinese culture, chases the flaming pearl, which is a symbol of knowledge and enlightenment.
Category: Ceramics
Chinese famille verte vase
When this early eighteenth-century vase was being cleaned in 2008 it was found to contain a 300-year-old Chinese shopping list giving details of the pigments needed to decorate the vase.
Category: Ceramics
Musical Score
Set within the Saloon ceiling is a manuscript of music dedicated to Belinda & Amelia. Research by Barbara Peel in the British Library unearthed the score and words, which had been published in the Universal Magazine for December 1758.
Category: Architectural feature
Square Piano
A mahogany and satinwood piano made in York by Thomas Haxby, numbered 325 and dated May 1792.
Category: Furniture
Tea Party Table Setting
Consumption of tea, coffee and chocolate was a significant social activity in the Fairfax household and the table, which dates from c.1760 and may have been made in Ireland, is laid with a mid-eighteenth century Chinese 'Nakin' tea set and a silver kettle and coffee pot.
Category: Miscellaneous
The Nollekens Conversation Piece
A highly important group portrait of the Tylney family gathered together in the saloon of Wanstead House (demolished 1822).
Category: Paintings
