THIRD QUARTER 17TH CENTURY

Originally silvered under its current 19th Century layer of gilding, this mirror may well be the 'Pier Glass Silver'd Furniture and Table to match 5.10.0' recorded in the Long Gallery in the 1795 Inventory. Although the Inventory reference is frustratingly vague, in 1795 the Long Gallery was richly furnished in florid Baroque taste as a room of entertainment, the great series of portraits in their Sunderland frames hung above a parade of sumptuous cabinets including the pair of Florentine Pietra Dura cabinets on George I gilt-gesso stands, as well as the Charles II silver-mounted Royal Presentation cabinet described as having 'Silver 'd Ornaments', both of which are still at Chirk. The mirror would, therefore, have fitted stylistically with the prevailing 18th Century 'antiquarianism'.

A closely related Charles II mirror, carved with flanking putti instead of dolphins, from the collections of the Dukes of Sutherland at Dunrobin Castle was sold by the Countess of Sutherland, Christie's London, 6 July 1989, lot 22.