the inverse breakfront moulded shelf above frieze with floral swags centred by tablet depicting playing putti and a ram, the pilaster jambs with classical urn above oval plaque centred by rosette, hung with trailing bellflowers, on plain footblocks.

The tablet of this chimneypiece bears similarities to a pair of overmantle oil paintings en grisaille by Jacob De Wit from the collection at Dorney House in Buckinghamshire. A further oil painting en grisaille attributed to De Wit was sold at Sothebys which depicts an ‘allegory of summer with the infant Bacchus riding a goat’, almost certainly the image which served as inspritation to the sculptor of this piece (see images 16 and 17).