CIRCA 1730-40, IN THE MANNER OF JAMES GIBBS

The design of this Palladian pier mirror, or 'tabernacle' glass, relates to drawings for mirrors of 1721-22 by the Scottish architect, James Gibbs (d. 1754) who in 1728 published his work in The Book of Architecture. These drawings predate similar designs by Gibbs' contemporaries including two by William Jones (d. 1750) of King Street, Golden Square, which are similar to the present example, and were presented in The Gentleman or Builders Companion, containing a variety of useful designs for doors, gateways, peers, pavilions, temples, chimney-pieces, slab tables, pier glasses or tabernacle frames, etc. in 1739, a publication of primarily Palladian designs (Elizabeth White, Pictorial Dictionary of British 18th Century Furniture Design, Woodbridge, 1990, p. 324, plates 46 and 47). The term 'tabernacle' originally referred to a niche in a wall for a statue or bust and derives from antiquity where in classical temples such as the Pantheon in Rome statues of deities were housed in niches around the walls (Adam Bowett, Early Georgian Furniture 1715-1740, Woodbridge, 2009, pp. 294-299). There was also a stylistic link between tabernacle mirrors and the rectangular architectural style of wall panelling, which made its first appearance around 1720.