Watermark: Probably fleur-de-lis inside double with circle. Watermark
Drawing is on fragment of a proof impression of an etching from "Antichita ̉d'Albano e di Castel Gandolfo," 1764, f. 526, pl. XVII.
This sketch for a chimneypiece incorporates decorative elements encountered elsewhere in Piranesi's work: the medallions found even in his early Venetian drawings, the shell seen in his Lateran designs, and the dolphins adopted from archaeological fragments.
Numbered at upper right, inverted, in graphite, "97".
Design for (work): Piranesi, Giovanni Battista, 1720-1778. Diverse maniere d'adornare i cammini.
Morgan, Jane Norton, 1868-1925, former owner.
Morgan, Junius Spencer, 1892-1960, former owner.
Morgan, Henry S. (Henry Sturgis), 1900-1982, former owner.
Stampfle, Felice. Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Drawings in the Pierpont Morgan Library. New York : Dover, 1978, no. 65, repr.