House, Chelsea: repair
A photograph of the house taken around 1908 shows a figure of Mercury on top of the pediment, but this appears not to have survived for very long and the plinth remained empty for many years. It seemed a shame to leave it unfinished, so a Portland stone urn was commissioned, using as a pattern a drawing by the architect James Gibbs, who worked around the time the house was built. The plinth was carefully repaired, with missing detail reinstated, and the stone urn was erected.
