Lot Essay
Designed in the Louis XV 'pittoresque' manner popularized by ornemanistes such as Franois Roumier, who was elected sculpteur ordinaire du roi in 1721, and Jacques Lajoue, this overmantel displays similar grotesque dragons emerging from scrolling foliage to those which featured, for instance, in Roumier's Livre de Plusieurs Desseins de Pieds de Table en Consoles of circa 1750. However, as both Nicolas Pineau and Juste-Aurle Meissonnier published designs in a very similar vein, the design source that inspired this mirror is difficult to determine. In the density of its carving and florid cresting, this mirror probably reflects the more exuberant Rococo revival of the 1830's, although the existence of a divided plate at that later date is more unusual. Mid-eighteenth century mirrors which feature related ornament include that with grimacing dragons illustrated in G. Child, World Mirrors 1650-1900, London, 1990, p.188, fig.344, and another with foliage wrapping the frame (p.190, fig.349).