Editing Harlaxton Manor (section)

====Cedar Staircase====
[[File:Harlaxton Manor, looking up the Cedar Staircase (26061998577).jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.4|The Cedar Staircase]] 
The Cedar Staircase is placed within a tower that is invisible externally.{{sfn|Franklin|1981|p=177}} It appears to rise three full storeys in what Michael Hall, in his 2009 study, ''The Victorian Country House'' calls an, "astonishingly theatrical ''tour de force''".{{sfn|Hall|2009|p=30}} This is in fact a ''[[trompe-l'œil]]'' illusion, as the upper storey is merely a decorative device and leads nowhere, culminating in a fake sky. The decoration is entirely Baroque; "[[Festoon|swagged]] curtains interlaced with thriving [[Putto|putti]] blowing trumpets and supporting huge [[scallop]] shells".{{sfn|Pevsner|Harris|Antram|2002|p=366}} Franklin notes that the style would amaze in a German church but is extraordinary in an English country house.{{sfn|Franklin|1981|p=177}} The plasterwork, here and elsewhere in the house, is possibly by the firm of [[Francis Bernasconi|Bernasconi]], a London-based firm of Italian origin.{{sfn|Jenkins|2003|pp=438-440}} An alternative theory is that Salvin, who is known to have visited [[Kingdom of Bavaria|Bavaria]] in 1835, brought back local German craftsmen to undertake the work,{{sfn|Allibone|1988|p=50}} but architectural historians favour the former suggestion. The Bernasconi Company certainly had the necessary experience, having been employed at both [[Buckingham Palace]] and [[Windsor Castle]].{{sfn|Wainright|Beard|Rowlands|2000|p=19}}