Lot 645: A group of eleven English carved oak panels by Edward Pierce (1630-1695) second half 17th century

mounted in groups on three baise lined boards, each of rectangular form with a double ribbon-tied fruiting and foliate swag

largest 107cm. high, 26cm. wide; 3ft, 6in., 10½in.

Country Life, February 12th, 1910, p. 234, 235 and 236, Wolseley Hall Staffordshire, the seat of Sir Charles Wolseley Bt. where the panels and some of the finials are illustrated in situ.

The upper and second stage landing and staircase at Wolseley Hall Staffordshire.Wolseley is recorded in the Domesday Book as belonging to Eric de Wolseley and it was not until Robert Wolseley was made a baronet in 1628 that the profile of the family was raised. He supported the King during the Civil War but upon his death in 1646, the sixteen year old Sir Charles inherited his baronetcy and his claims and the latter eventually supported Cromwell and sat in Cromwell's Parliaments and on his Council of State. It was Sir Charles who did the rebuilding of Wolseley Hall in the 1830's, and it was he who actually dismantled the 17th century staircase and stored it away in a cupboard where it lay forgotten until fortunately his son re-erected it in the position it is seen in, in the 1910 Country Life photograph.

These panels are originally from the magnificent Charles II staircase at Wolseley Hall in Staffordshire which was unusual as the most favoured form of staircase at that time was to fill in the space between the handrail and the string with panels of rich carving perforated and modelled representing scrolling foliage and flowers interspersed in some instances with amorini and heraldic beasts. Here however, balusters were used but of a diffrent model that would have been usual under Elizabeth and James I as they were designed in the spirit of the stone balustrades designed by Palladio and the Italians for their terraces and balconies.The panels of fruit and flowers are similar to those which were used at Sudbury in Derbyshire and at Dunster in Somerset. Edward Pearce (1635-1695): Edward Pearce (c.1635-1695), architect and sculptor, was the son of Edward Pearce (d. 1658), a painter and member of the Painter-Stainers' Company who was employed on the interiors at Somerset House and St Paul's, Covent Garden, in London and at Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire. His father's work was accorded a favourable mention in George Vertue's Note Books, but most of it has been destroyed by fire. A volume of his designs for friezes, first published in 1640 and reprinted several times, was a likely source of ornament for his son's carved work, such as the staircase at Sudbury Hall, Derbyshire. 'Edward Pearse sonne of Mr Edward Pearse' was 'made free by patrimony' of the Painter-Stainers on 16 January 1656 and 'chosen of the livery' on 20 February 1668 and he became a warden of the company in October 1683 and thereafter appeared intermittently as a member of the court until, on lord mayor's day 1693, he became master. This position he held for only a year, resigning perhaps through ill health on 24 October 1694.

The picture that emerges from a host of references in contemporary financial records is of Pearce's thriving and wide-ranging business practices in the building boom that followed the Restoration and the Great Fire of London. It encompassed to an unusual degree both architectural design for ecclesiastical and domestic patronage and building contracting, with the execution of ornament in both wood and stone. Pearce worked with the leading architects of his day and he worked with Wren on the chapel at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, supplying drawings for the ground plan, wainscot, and seats.

In London, Pearce was the master mason, or main building contractor, for four of Wren's churches and for parts of St Paul's Cathedral. At St Paul's, he was one of thirteen master masons, and his was one of six teams of masons. In 1678 he had the contract to build the south portico of the cathedral. He also worked at Chatsworth, Derbyshire, being named as a mason contractor in Wren's report of 1692 to the fifth earl of Devonshire on the costs of the south and east fronts and at Hampton Court.