In the latest installment of our A-Z series, volunteer archivist Cluny Wells delves into the fascinating history of the elegant urns that adorn the grounds of Chiswick House & Gardens.

There are many Urns in the Grounds at Chiswick – today I counted 83 in the whole area. As soon as Lord Burlington had finished building his Villa, and had placed his three ancient statues in the Exedra or hemicycle from their safe home in the Ionic Temple, he set to work on acquiring more statues. Burlington ordered his first set of urns – 27 of them – to arrive in two tranches. The first group, 18 urns, were to frame the northern vista from the House to the Exedra – nine urns in each row interspersed with cypress trees and with a matching Sphinx almost halfway along.

Towards the end of the 1740s Burlington put in another row of urns and Cypresses replacing the first line of trees in the eastern Grove. He also commissioned an extra Sphinx from John Cheere – a lead one. Now there were three identical, parallel rows of urns, trees and Sphinx, which are still in situ today. The engraving of the view below by John Donowell, 1753, shows the three rows , looking from the House to the Exedra and Patte d’oie.

Each of these 27 urns was decorated to a design by Lord Burlington – one with a plain body, rising to a Vitruvius scroll under a Greek key rim and an acanthus decorated lid. The lower part of the body had rising Harts Tongue fern.

Within the Exedra, on either side of the three antique statues, are four large carved urns – two of these are decorated with tabula ansata, an uncommon design, even in those times – an applied panel with fish tail handles. It was a favourite form for votive tablets in Imperial Rome, and could have been an inspiration for Burlington when he saw ancient or Renaissance examples on his Grand Tours.

Urns were often used to decorate buildings, and Burlington ordered many for his outdoor staircases. The front of the House had 20 small urns on top of the stairs and the back had 10 small matching urns, including two in the two niches on the wall. See  below…

There are two Squat urns in front of the Link Building…

Adjoining the Link Building is The Summer Parlour – this has four urns on its roof, on the side facing the Central Allee. It is hard to make out the design on the rooftop urns from the ground – perhaps with binoculars or a telescope!

The urns for Chiswick were either commissioned from Thomas Greenway, the main carver of urns in Bath at that time, or from Robert Parsons and Sons – who had joined Greenway. A member of the Parson family kept a notebook of designs, some of which were named as Burlington’s own.

No place in Burlington’s time: The following urns were not where they are now – four large spherical urns, decorated with wreaths, in the Italian Garden, and the urns on the Classic Bridge. These must all have been placed there from earlier positions in the Grounds. In Burlington’s time the Italian Garden was part of the next door estate of Moreton Hall, and the Classic Bridge was not built until 1788 in the 5th Duke of Devonshire’s time.

There are two types of urn now on the Classic Bridge: squat urns, two each at the bottom of the two slopes leading up to the Bridge, and eight small urns decorating the top of the Bridge, similar to the urns decorating the top of the House stairways front and back.

The Inigo Jones Gate has two Urns in front of it with handles in the Egyptian style.

Lord Burlington’s urns, added to his other sculptures in the Grounds, including antique figures, famous depictions such as Palladio and Inigo Jones, terms and animals such as the lions, and mythical sphinxes, meant that he had one of the largest garden sculpture collections in England. The collections were so admired by visitors to the Grounds that they looked for reproductions and the sculptors who had worked for him seemed happy to oblige. (Jacques)

Sources used:

• Lord Burlington. Architecture, Art and Life. Eds. Toby Barnard and Jane Clark

• Chiswick House Gardens. David Jacques

• Chiswick House Statuary Survey 1990. Vol 1. The National Trust

• Research and inspiration. June Ford-Crush, 2023