Alexander, 10th Duke of Hamilton, installed grandiose black marble chimneypieces and doorways as part of his campaign to demonstrate and project the status, wealth and power of the House of Hamilton.

The earlier chimneypieces would have been smaller and plainer. However, they may also have been the wrong sizes and of poor quality. Lord Basil Hamilton's letter reveals that there were considerable problems obtaining the original chimneypieces for Anne, Duchess of Hamilton, in 1699. The Earl of Arran acquired a number of chimneypieces which were the wrong dimensions and, in at least one case, definitely sub-standard. Lord Basil writes:

'The dressing room and bed chamber chimneys [ie chimneypieces] are pretty near to the measure but not exact, and they were desired to have been different colours and they are one. That for the closet further wrong, in the measure […] but the Black [chimneypiece] for the dining room is entirely wrong and can't serve at all and has no ways the proportion according to the Rules of Architecture, but sure has been some old thing that has lain in the man's hand that he could not get off, and so it seems has been thought good enough for Scotland. My Lady is much displeased at it and says since you was not at the expenses you might have been at the pains to have seen the chimneys compared with the measures that was sent up.'