IN THE MANNER OF THOMAS PELLETIER, CIRCA 1705

This finely executed mirror with its broadly conceived acanthus-wrapped scrolls capped by gadroons and centered by a female mask with entwined braids relates closely to the work of the royal cabinet-maker Thomas Pelletier (d.1723). The son of Jean Pelletier (d.1704), and brother to René, this family of carvers and gilders of French Huguenot extraction, supplied pier tables, mirrors, candlestands and frames to William III and Queen Anne as well as for other notable patrons such as Ralph, Earl and later 1st Duke of Montagu, Master of the Wardrobe to William III, for his London home and Boughton House, Northamptonshire. While this mirror probably formed part of a suite together with a giltwood table and a pair of candlestands, the execution, proportion and carved details of the cresting can be closely compared to the documented work of the Pelletier family including an apron on a table supplied to Queen Anne in circa 1705 and incorporating her Royal cypher (see T. Murdoch, 'Jean, René and and Thomas Pelletier, a Huguenot family of carvers and gilders in England 1682-1726', The Burlington Magazine, part I, November 1997, p.737, fig.7), a mirror frame supplied for Montagu House, London (op.cit, part II, June 1998, p.368, fig.13), and an eglomisé mirror attributed to Thomas and René Pelletier at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (ibid, p.371, fig.17). The concave-molded frame carved in low relief does not appear in any known works by these makers.