A shell and coral encrusted pine and gesso chimneypiece from around 1805 attributed to Richard Foster of Mint, Edinburgh, on sale at Westland London was featured recently in Country Life a a ‘Magnificent Fireplace’, and, we should mention, that World of Interiors magazine also lists the company in its prestige supplier Index.
 
The ‘Nelson’ fire surround was designed with a coastal landscape in mind and is profusely decorated with acorns, mushroom, eagles, and a frieze profusely decorated with coral, shells upon shells, seaweed, sea cucumber and crabs. The tablet is believed to depict Lady Emma Hamilton leaning on a ship’s anchor, emblematic of Hope for a safe return, whilst gazing out to sea at the distant HMS Victory, the ship on which Admiral Nelson would meet his heroic end. The underfrieze entwines roses and thistles, emblematic of England and Scotland. The jambs have twin clusters of slender compound engaged columns resting on plain footblocks with original Kilkenny fossil marble ingrounds. The surround came from an elegant Georgian house on the east coast of Scotland, near Edinburgh. 

Richard Foster was born in Canonbie, the Scottish Borders, in 1755. In 1769 he was apprenticed in London perhaps to the Adam Brothers as they too were in London at this time. In 1785 he returned to Edinburgh, working as a joiner and married to the daughter of a wealthy leather merchant. His chimneypieces were sold not only in Scotland, but also in the USA.

 
The Adam brothers, Robert and James, promoted their designs to the emerging middle class in Edinburgh New Town which became synonymous with the Adam Style. Foster was a master of the technique of delicate and finely manufactured pine and gesso.
 In the 1770s, the technique of applying a cast composition onto pine took off in Scotland. The process involved mixing chalk or gypsum with glue size heated to a precise temperature and pressed into moulds. Foster was commissioned to make unique designs which might incorporate repliacted decorative motifs.
 
Was the tablet based on a known artwork specifically representing Emma Hamilton and HMS Victory? Emma Hamilton was the wife of Sir William Hamilton, the British representative in Naples who was also an archaeologist and a collector. She was famous for her 'attitudes', a series of theatrical mimes in costume representing figures from classical and other stories, which profoundly impressed viewers with their emotion and their relationship to famous works of art, not least due to the diaphanous or absent costumes. Emma also became Nelson’s mistress.
 
Other allegories could be drawn from the tablet scene including a generic longing farewell from an amour, hoping for the safe return of her seafaring jolly jack tar.

In 2019 Westland moved from the former St Michael’s and All Angel’s church in Shoreditch a Regency coach house on Willesden Green. Established by Geoff Westland in 1969, this flagship business deals in fine and prestigious architectural and decorative antiques, displaying period chimneypieces, fireplace accessories, lighting, mirrors and more. Geoff was a great traveller, searching for stock throughout Europe, using his gift for languages and making many contacts along the way. Today, Westland continues to source items from all over the world, in search of the magnificent. Pieces with fascinating provenance are a particular draw to the company.
 
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Edit by TKay, with thanks to Westland and other sources