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Lot Essay
The mirror is likely to have formed part of a pier-set, accompanied by a table and stands in a bedroom apartment, which also likely displayed a lacquer cabinet-on-stand. Numerous such suites are listed in the early inventories of Ham House including one listed in the Duchess of Lauderdale's bedroom in 1677, executed in imported coromandel lacquer (see P. Thornton, 'The Furnishing and Decoration of Ham House', Furniture History, 1980, p. 114, and fig. 103). Other suites of veneered lacquer dressing furniture can be attributed to the Royal cabinet-maker Gerrit Jensen (A. Bowett, English Furniture 1660-1714 From Charles II to Queen Anne, Woodbridge, Sussex, 2002, p. 153, color pl. 5:13). Jensen's invoice to the Duchess of Somerset at Petworth House includes an entry dated 1690 for a 'Glass in a black Japan frame and a Table to fall Like a Bewro and Stands 16'.
The convex frame is decorated in imitation of rare Japanese lacquer. Its landscape vignettes were inspired by the designs in Stalker and Parker's popular pattern book Treatise on the Arts of Japanning, Varnishing and Guilding (1688). A related mirror with arched cresting at Hampton Court, Herefordshire, is illustrated R. Edwards, The Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1964, fig. 13. Another japanned example was sold from The Manor House at Clifton Hampden, Home of Christopher Gibbs, Christie's, London, 25-26 September 2000, lot 212 (£18,800).
The convex frame is decorated in imitation of rare Japanese lacquer. Its landscape vignettes were inspired by the designs in Stalker and Parker's popular pattern book Treatise on the Arts of Japanning, Varnishing and Guilding (1688). A related mirror with arched cresting at Hampton Court, Herefordshire, is illustrated R. Edwards, The Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1964, fig. 13. Another japanned example was sold from The Manor House at Clifton Hampden, Home of Christopher Gibbs, Christie's, London, 25-26 September 2000, lot 212 (£18,800).