Curio

Ceiling in the Shakespeare room

1942

The exquisite plaster ceiling in the Shakespeare room is modelled on the ceiling of Cardinal Wolsey's closet at Hampton Court Palace in England. To construct the ceiling, photographs of the original ceiling were taken and then enlarged to actual size. Closely referencing the full-scale photos, a clay model was made in Art Plasto’s Sydney workshops and from this a mould was cast. Plaster was poured into the mould to produce the series of panels. Moulded ribbings, the most characteristic design feature of Tudor ceilings, hold the individual panels in place. The intricate design of the ceiling and the frieze which continues to the top of the woodwork features Prince of Wales feathers, Tudor roses, rosettes, mermen and mermaids, dolphins, vases and fleurs-de-lis (lilies).

The electrolier (light fitting) was manufactured by Chubb’s Australian Company and donated to the Library by Sir William Dixson, a major benefactor of the Library.

Cardinal Wolsley’s ceiling at Hampton Court (on which this one is modelled) marked the shift from decorated wood to plaster ceilings. It was constructed in 1523 by skilled Italian plasterers.

Tudor architecture enjoyed something of a revival in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Commonly called ‘mock Tudor’, the revival celebrated the simple design of the Tudor period as a reaction to the Victorian obsession with architecture and design which drew its inspiration from the Gothic period. This style was also referred to as Tudorbethan.