Lot 166
166
The Property of the late EARL AMHERST, M.C. (Lots 143-144)
A GEORGE III GILTWOOD OVERMANTEL MIRROR attributed to John Linnell, the central rectangular plate in a beaded frame set forward from a mirrored outer border and draped with laurel, the whole flanked by fluted pilasters and pierced, scrolled sides headed by a floral motif and trailing laurel, the bottom with acanthus and a flowerhead terminal, the cresting centred by a flaming urn with ram-masks and hung with swags and flanked to each side by two pierced anthemia, lacking elements of cresting, one pane of glass cracked, with pencil design to the reverse

Details
A GEORGE III GILTWOOD OVERMANTEL MIRROR attributed to John Linnell, the central rectangular plate in a beaded frame set forward from a mirrored outer border and draped with laurel, the whole flanked by fluted pilasters and pierced, scrolled sides headed by a floral motif and trailing laurel, the bottom with acanthus and a flowerhead terminal, the cresting centred by a flaming urn with ram-masks and hung with swags and flanked to each side by two pierced anthemia, lacking elements of cresting, one pane of glass cracked, with pencil design to the reverse
91 x 93in. (231 x 236cm.)

Lot Essay

This mirror-bordered overmantel-glass is designed in the George III 'antique' style of the 1770s, and its central section is canted forward in the fashion favoured by architects such as Sir John Soane (d. 1837). Its fluted plinth, sacred-urn finial with ram-headed handles, beaded inner-borders and flanking husk-festooned brackets of acanthus-scrolls with rosette-enriched volutes, feature in designs by John Linnell (d. 1795), cabinet-maker and upholsterer of Berkeley Square, such as his pier-glass design of 1775 (see: H. Hayward, 'The Drawings of John Linnell in the Victoria & Albert Museum', Furniture History Journal, Leeds, 1969, fig. 105).
Related elements can also be found in pier-glass which were designed in 1777 by the architect Robert Adam (d. 1792) and probably executed by Linnell for Osterley Park, Middlesex (see: M. Tomlin, Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture, London, 1972, p. 84)

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