Austin Studios: Hamilton Palace ChimneyPiece

Commercial Palladio Winner Craftsmanship

In his nearly 40 years in business, Kevin Austin has carved out a reputation as an artisan who can create or replicate any classical-style product with little or no information to go on.

A case in point is his restoration of a historical chimneypiece wall that originally graced Hamilton Palace, a large country house in Lanarkshire, Scotland, the seat of the Dukes of Hamilton.

The palace, one of the grandest residences in Britain, was erected in 1695. Although it was demolished in 1927, California newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst had bought several of its rooms, including the one that had the black marble fireplace and carved wood overmantel that Austin and his eponymous studio in Garland, Texas, were asked to restore.

Hearst, it seems, sold some of these acquisitions in the 1940s, and the historical chimneypiece ended up in a private house in Dallas. Austin’s client got it from his father and wanted to install it in the Old Parkland office campus he owns.

“He’s a collector of artifacts and antiques,” Austin says. “The whole complex has high-end classical architecture and looks like a museum.”

By the time Austin was commissioned to restore the chimneypiece and its black marble mantelpiece and ornately carved white oak overmantel, it had been significantly altered.

“The mantel was in shambles, and entire pieces were missing,” he says. “Someone had cut 30 inches out of the height so it would fit a low-ceiling room, so we had to recreate some of the drapery details to extend it back to original proportions. The back boards were badly warped as well, so we completely disassembled the carvings, stripped multiple layers of finish, repaired many of the broken or missing details, then reassembled it.”

Austin did a lot of research on the palace, but he only was able to turn up one grainy vintage photograph of the chimneypiece as a reference for his work. “I did see photos of other rooms in the palace, and that helped me understand the style,” he says.

There was not enough of the original rare black marble to make the mantel repairs, but Austin lucked out—an artist friend happened to have some in his scrapyard.

The elaborately carved overmantel needed numerous repairs, and after stripping off centuries of old finish, Austin and his team set about carving the leaves, flowers, bits of chain, and drapery that were missing. They also dismantled and rebuilt the frame to its original dimensions.

Austin and his team also re-carved two pilasters and capitals that were missing.

“The client told us just to make them in the standard style, but after enlarging and studying the old photo, I realized that each of the capitals had three eagles where the volutes normally would be,” Austin says. “We made clay models for approval, and we carved them in white oak in the same style as those on the overmantel.”

To commemorate the piece’s history, Austin Studios carved an inscription and the Dukes of Hamilton crest into a slab of black slate that was then distressed and patinaed and is displayed in the room.

Austin, who opened his carving company in the late 1980s, started his career as a trim carpenter. “I kept seeing carved wood fireplaces, and I said, ‘I think I can do that,’ he says. “I bought some books and tools and spent hundreds of hours studying period architecture. I started out working out of my garage.”

As time went on, he hired a carver and taught himself how to make casts and molds. Later, he added marble carving to his oeuvre.

“Someone hooked me up with a marble factory in Italy,” he says. “I designed a mantel for a client, and when it came, I didn’t like it. So I went to Home Depot and got some tools and started whittling on it. I thought, ‘This isn’t that hard; it’s easier than wood because you’re not fighting the grain.’”

When another client requested a limestone mantelpiece, Austin taught himself how to carve that stone, too. Now, the studio does wood and stone carving on a regular basis.

All of Austin’s can-do experience more than prepared him for the Hamilton Palace project.

“The extreme amount of detail this piece had was just amazing,” says Austin, who notes that the project took 1,200 to 1,500 hours to complete. “In this project as in all others, our goal remains to be the best we can be with whatever we’re doing.” TB