The Magazine Antiques

The Market | By Danielle Sonnekalb

Great Estates: Gunston Hall in Mason Neck, Virginia

October 18, 2011  |  Completed in 1759 after four years of construction, the estate’s Georgian façade and animated interiors were designed and executed by two highly skilled English indentured servants, architect William Buckland (1734-1774) and carver and designer William Bernard Sears (d. 1818).  The design was conceived as a two-story structure with north and south porches and formal and vegetable gardens on what was once 5,500 acres of tobacco and corn fields.  Buckland had been trained in the architectural style of Palladio, which is clearly evident at Gunston Hall.  Yet the novice architect, who had just completed his apprenticeship prior to working for Mason, took his training to a new level by merging the established neoclassical style with rococo, Gothic, and chinoiserie elements, thus creating a decorative scheme unprecedented in Virginia at the time.  This is seen in the layout of the first floor, which includes the lively and highly ornamental “Palladian” room; the “Chinese” room wit…» More