History

Some losses to the carving. See the "C.Pratt Son & Sons" advertisement in Apollo Magazine Sept. 1934 for a picture of the frieze in situ at Portman Square prior to their acquiring "fitments [that] include some of the finest marble chimneypieces, wrought iron staircases, mahogany doors, architraves and panelling etc. all of Adam design". The note to the picture featuring the present carved frieze says it "shows a corner of one of the rooms, the Mahogany Doors being carved and inlaid with their original ormolu handles designed by Robert Adam himself. There are over forty Mahogany doors of this quality. The overdoors are of carved wood". The advert stated that the company "beg to announce that they have just bought the interior decorations of [the] three houses in Portman Square, one being the residence of the late Princess Royal, Duchess of Fife." Whilst Pratt were keen to say that the houses were "built and designed by Robert Adam", John Harris in "Moving Rooms, The Trade in Architectural Salvages" Yale University, 2007 pp115-6 points out that these addresses were a speculation by non other than James Wyatt a rival of the Adam brothers and who emulated their work so closely he was accused by the Adam brothers of plagerism!

Research continues.