A Rare Example of Early Nineteenth Century Trompe L'oeil Decoration: The Octagonal Reception Room at Telfair Mansion, Savannah, Georgia

Abstract

In the spring of 1981, an architectural investigation of the Octagon Room at the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences in Savannah, Georgia was conducted in order to determine the room's original architectural decoration.1 Guided only by a few tantalizing clues found in the late nineteenth century plans for the building's renovation, the urbane sophistication and complexity of the room's original ca. 1819 design became apparent after a careful analysis of the architectural fabric (Fig. 1, 2). Telfair Mansion was designed by the English architect, William Jay, in 1818-19 for Alexander Telfair, son of Edward Telfair, Governor of Georgia. One of only three surviving documented examples of Jay's residential work in Savannah,2 Telfair Mansion is similar in both its design and detailing to Jay's other buildings, characterized by their severe exterior massing of classicallyinspired elements, a balanced central plan with apsidalended rooms, and deeply projecting and strongly profiled mouldings. Such an architectural vocabulary was the result of Jay's professional training in Regency England and the influence of his contemporaries Sir John Soane and John Nash.3 The original function of the room is not certain; however, the renovation plans of 1885 identify the room as a Reception Room, a use complimentary in both its location and relation to the other first floor rooms also identified on the plans. Octagonally-shaped rooms had become a common feature of English villas and country houses by the early 19th century, the form usually reserved for drawing rooms and libraries (Fig. 3).4 A comparison of Telfair's octagonal room with a number of Soane's smaller residential spaces such as the Front and Back Parlours at Pitzhanger Manor, Ealing (remodelled 1800); the Breakfast Parlour in his own home at Lincoln's Inn Fields, London (remodelled 1812-13) and, in particular, the In the spring of 1981, an architectural investigation of the Octagon Room at the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences in Savannah, Georgia was conducted in order to determine the room's original architectural decoration.1 Guided only by a few tantalizing clues found in the late nineteenth century plans for the building's renovation, the urbane sophistication and complexity of the room's original ca. 1819 design became apparent after a careful analysis of the architectural fabric (Fig. 1, 2). Telfair Mansion was designed by the English architect, William Jay, in 1818-19 for Alexander Telfair, son of Edward Telfair, Governor of Georgia. One of only three surviving documented examples of Jay's residential work in Savannah,2 Telfair Mansion is similar in both its design and detailing to Jay's other buildings, characterized by their severe exterior massing of classicallyinspired elements, a balanced central plan with apsidalended rooms, and deeply projecting and strongly profiled mouldings. Such an architectural vocabulary was the result of Jay's professional training in Regency England and the influence of his contemporaries Sir John Soane and John Nash.3 The original function of the room is not certain; however, the renovation plans of 1885 identify the room as a Reception Room, a use complimentary in both its location and relation to the other first floor rooms also identified on the plans. Octagonally-shaped rooms had become a common feature of English villas and country houses by the early 19th century, the form usually reserved for drawing rooms and libraries (Fig. 3).4 A comparison of Telfair's octagonal room with a number of Soane's smaller residential spaces such as the Front and Back Parlours at Pitzhanger Manor, Ealing (remodelled 1800); the Breakfast Parlour in his own home at Lincoln's Inn Fields,