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After the Leicester and Queen of Scots apartments the next phase of the visit is to the splendid series of state rooms which are located on the site of the Long Gallery of the original 16th century Elizabethan building. This is one of the more sumptuous parts of the building. Some of the furniture in these rooms was housed at Chiswick House and Devonshire House. There are a number of excellent wood carvings and also painted ceilings by Verrio and Laguerre, more ostentatious and sprightly than those seen previous rooms. These rooms were originally designed to welcome royalty, although the first monarch to visit Chatsworth was Queen Victoria.

 

The State Dining Room

Of particular artistic interest In the State Dining Room is furniture designed by William Kent, 17th and 18th century silver, a painting by Cornelius Vos (c. 1584-1651) thought to be the portrait of one of the artist's daughters, visible on the easel on the bottom left of the image below (click on the picture for an enlarged view).

 

Detail of the dining room painted ceiling by Verrio

The state dining room

 

The painted ceiling is by Verrio and was completed in 1692. The two small gold plated tables against the wall, on either side of the fireplace, were designed by William Kent and carved by Lobb, Davis and Young of London with the help of Samuel Watson. Here, too, is yet another work by George Knapton: Charlotte Boyle afterwards Marchioness of Hartington, When a Child. Above the chimneypiece is a portrait of Henry Clifford, 5th and Last Earl of Cumberland