18Th Century George II Period Carved Gesso And Giltwood Mirror Of Excellent Prop

A fine 18th Century George II Period Giltwood mirror with swan neck pediment and central cartouche retaining its original vauxhall soft bevelled mirror plate.

English, c.1730

This wonderful giltwood mirror was made around the time of King George II's accession to the throne and represents a particular form of Palladianism that was popular with the connoisseurs of this period. Gilded throughout, the piece has a beautifully carved broken scroll pediment, the centre filled with a cartouche with additional shell form relief decoration. The ends of the scrolls terminate in floral motifs, leaf form carving spilling from the centre of the flowers. Behind these carved elements are scrolling features rising up from the frieze, forming waves which are reminiscent of the Vitruvian scroll motif that was also very popular at this time.

The frieze section is very narrow and ornamented with raised mouldings with further formalised leaf carving on them and with cut gesso strapwork decoration which runs around the edge of the plate. This strapwork, though at its roots inspired by the French baroque ornamentists such as Jean Berain, is in a very different taste. It features diamond-form motifs interspersed with abstract leaf motifs, this naturalism anticipating the rococo taste which was soon to take over as the fashionable type of decoration in Europe. At the base of the mirror are two more floral roundels and a finely shaped lower apron with more fine gesso cutting, including panels of diaper work, and another raised scallop shell. There is a beaded moulding in the centre of the piece which surrounds the original soft bevelled vauxhall rectangular looking glass. A Vauxhall bevelled mirror plate is a glass mirror plate made at the Vauxhall glass works in South London. Vauxhall was a prestigious glass works in the 17th and 18th centuries and rare to find originals.

Considering that mirror designs typically drew from a relatively small palette of decorative motifs, the skill of the best designers lay in their ability to combine these motifs in the most sensitive way possible without overloading and unbalancing the piece. The ratio of plate to decoration is essential to the success of any mirror design and the present piece is very well proportioned and balanced. The use of different forms of decoration such as strapwork, floral motifs, scrolls, diaper, beading in one single piece is testament to the imagination of this particular designer. Although it is difficult to make any meaningful attribution to a particular designer, it is worth mentioning that many aspects of this design appear in a series of mirror designs by Joseph Sanderson which are preserved in the V&A. One example is particularly close in feeling

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O124946/design-sanderson-joseph/

Sanderson was active c.1730-40 and his only recorded project was at Barrington Hall in Essex. He was clearly a designer of great skill and a fine draughtsman and our mirror is of a similar level of quality as those presented in his fine drawings.

Another mirror of comparable form and quality was in the collection of the Worshipful Company of Mercers at Trinity College, Greenwich, when featured in Oliver Brackett's book English Furniture Illustrated, published in 1959, plate CXIV. Another mirror with close similarities to our piece was illustrated by the great dealer Stair and Company in their 1989 catalogue and had provenance to the Earl of Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland. Finally, a mirror previously from the collection of Sir Simon Sainsbury was sold at Christie's on the 20th of November 2008 in the Dealing in Excellence sale of the stock of top dealers Hotspur and Jeremy. This mirror, lot 11 in the sale, made 25,000 including premium.

This fine mirror is a collectors' piece and a great example of the fine quality pieces produced by the best workshops of this period. The gesso cutting is sharp and well defined with the original gilding having been refreshed in looks to be the early 19th Century.The carved elements of the piece are also extremely well executed.

Width: 32 1/2 inches - 83cm
Height: 55 1/2 inches - 141cm
Depth: 5 inches - 13cm