LATE 18TH CENTURY, REDUCED IN HEIGHT,

The design of this pier mirror relates closely to a mirror attributed to Carl Gustav Fyrvald of circa 1800, particularly with its figural medallion framed by laurel swags (see G. Child, World Mirrors: 1650-1900, London, 1990, p. 305). Two door surrounds in the Red Salon of Tullgarn, the summer palace of Prince Fredrik Adolf (d. 1803), Duke of Östergötland and the younger brother of Gustaf III, are similarly decorated with Pompeiian ornament, classical maidens within medallions and laurel leaf-garland surrounds (illustrated in H. Groth, Neoclassicism in the North, New York, 1990, p. 106-107, fig. 86).

According to Mrs. Merrill's records, this mirror was purchased in a 'Lord Spencer Churchill auction in 1967'. A mirror of this description does not appear in the Christie's sale of the late Captain E.G. Spencer-Churchill, M.C., Northwick Park, Gloucestershire held on 28 September 1964 following Lord Spencer-Churchill's death. Nor can it be found in the catalogue of any subsequent sales at Christie's or Sotheby's in the 1960s.