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Lot Essay
These neo-classical pier mirrors were supplied for Danson Hill, Bexley, Kent, the Palladian villa built in 1762-66 for Sir John Boyd, later 1st Baronet Boyd (d. 1800), a wealthy sugar merchant with trading interests in the West Indies and Deputy Chairman of the East India Company (1759-6). The mirrors are recorded in two watercolours of circa 1860 by Sarah Johnston, and remaining carved giltwood fragments still in the house (now managed by Bexley Heritage Trust), together with evidence of the original pier glasses surviving in paint layers, confirm that the 18th century pier glass offered here is one of those originally supplied to Boyd (R. Lea, C. Miele, G. Higgott, Danson House, The Anatomy of a Georgian Villa, Swindon, 2011, p. 41, figs. 6.13, 6.14). There is also evidence on this pier glass of earlier, but now missing, candle sconces as depicted in the watercolours. The companion 19th century mirror was probably made to replace the other 18th century companion glass in the early 19th century following damage. The present pier glasses at Danson Hill are replicas of the originals, installed by English Heritage in 2004.
SIR JOHN BOYD, ROBERT TAYLOR AND DANSON HILL
Sir John commissioned the villa and surrounding parkland to convey an appropriate image of refinement and as a place of pleasure and recreation away from his business premises at Broad Street in the City of London, and a leased West End house in Great George Street. He acquired the land on which Danson Hill was built for its convenient location near the London to Dover Road, and hence both the City and Chatham Docks were easily accessible.
Robert Taylor (d. 1788), 'pioneer of neoclassicism', was selected as the architect (ibid., p. 15), a natural choice since his patrons included many prominent city merchants. He designed a number of London houses and offices, suburban villas and country houses including Chute, Hampshire; Sharpham, Devon; Harleyford, Buckinghamshire; and Heveningham Hall, Suffolk, the latter completed by James Wyatt. His name is relatively unfamiliar today, perhaps because, unlike contemporaries, he did not publish his designs, yet his career was an unqualified success and when he died his estate was valued at some £180,000 (significantly more than Sir Christopher Wren, James Gibbs or William Kent achieved in their lives).
To ensure the finest views, Danson Hill was built in splendid isolation on a ridge, the highest point of the estate. It is considered one of Taylor's finest works with exterior proportions governed by the classical orders of architecture, and built to a rectangular plan with a pedimented main entrance and later single storey service wings.
The interiors reflected 18th century changes in the patterns of use and new ways of socialising; the piano nobile comprises a circuit of four rooms around an elliptical top-lit cantilever staircase, and the rooms overlooking the park are octagonal with polygonal bays (ibid., p. 16).
The Danson Hill mirrors would have been commissioned by Sir John, but probably originally conceived for the Octagon Room (Saloon), before being adjusted almost immediately for installation in the Dining Room. The anthemion and acanthus frames correspond to the frieze around the walls of the Saloon, but the acanthus frames of the crestings together with their allusion to Bacchus, god of the vine, plenty and pleasure, and Ceres, the harvest god, appear to relate more closely to decoration in the Dining Room. The foliate ornament of the swags is a prevalent motif throughout Danson Hill, mirrored above the front door and are in the Library.
This magnificent room was lavishly decorated with 'Naples yellow' walls and nineteen oil-on-canvas wall panels by the French artist, Charles Pavillon, conceived and executed in 1766; larger panels depicting mythological figures including Bacchus and Ceres, interspersed with smaller foliate and floral panels.
The Dining Room (or 'Eating Room') pier glasses are included in an 1805 handwritten Sale Inventory of Danson Hill, a document probably drawn up by John Boyd II, where they are listed as '2 large glasses'.
In circa 1863, the then owner of Danson Hill, Alfred Bean, a railway engineer, replaced the Dining Room pier glasses with Victorian plate glass that completely filled the 'triumphal arch' recesses; in 1922 the Dining Room, with plate glass installed, was photographed prior to the villa and presumably some of its contents being sold.
THE DESIGN
The design of these pier glasses can be confidently attributed to Sir William Chambers. Boyd and Chambers were close friends, the latter receiving an invitation from Sir John 'to spend a day at Danson with your Ladys' (J. Harris, Sir William Chambers, Knight of the Polar Star, London, 1970, p. 203, no. 22). Around 1768-70, Chambers supplied designs for three chimney pieces for Danson Hill including the Dining Room chimneypiece with side pilasters ornamented with a Bacchic thyrsus surmounted by a leopard's head, installed around 1770, and also for a Doric temple and 'Palladio bridge' in the park (ibid., p. 203, no. 22).
The mirrors' rectangular frames with central mask relate to Chambers' drawing for an overmantel mirror for the Saloon at Gower House, Whitehall. The ornamentation of the frame, combining anthemion and acanthus leaves, is closely related to that found in a design by Chambers for the frieze of a medal cabinet for the Earl of Charlemont (ibid., fig. 100; Ed. J. Harris, M. Snodin, Sir William Chambers, Architect to George III, New Haven and London, 1996, p. 174, fig. 261) while the advanced neo-classical crestings of seated griffins flanking a sacred urn on tripod supports feature in other Chambers' designs such as the 1770 library ceiling, at Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire, and on the staircase at Melbourne House, Piccadilly (Harris, ibid., figs. 90, 99). Seated griffins are also on a pair of ormolu candlesticks, circa 1767, at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, (Harris, Snodin, ibid., p. 161, figs. 239-241).
Given the difference in the edge mouldings of the cresting friezes and the main mirrors, it is conceivable that the mirrors were originally supplied without crestings, and that Chambers adopted the acanthus for the crestings when the mirrors were ultimately fitted in the Dining Room niches.
We would like to acknowledge the assistance of Richard Lea from English Heritage, Richard Garnier and Sarah Humphris from Bexley Heritage Trust.
SIR JOHN BOYD, ROBERT TAYLOR AND DANSON HILL
Sir John commissioned the villa and surrounding parkland to convey an appropriate image of refinement and as a place of pleasure and recreation away from his business premises at Broad Street in the City of London, and a leased West End house in Great George Street. He acquired the land on which Danson Hill was built for its convenient location near the London to Dover Road, and hence both the City and Chatham Docks were easily accessible.
Robert Taylor (d. 1788), 'pioneer of neoclassicism', was selected as the architect (ibid., p. 15), a natural choice since his patrons included many prominent city merchants. He designed a number of London houses and offices, suburban villas and country houses including Chute, Hampshire; Sharpham, Devon; Harleyford, Buckinghamshire; and Heveningham Hall, Suffolk, the latter completed by James Wyatt. His name is relatively unfamiliar today, perhaps because, unlike contemporaries, he did not publish his designs, yet his career was an unqualified success and when he died his estate was valued at some £180,000 (significantly more than Sir Christopher Wren, James Gibbs or William Kent achieved in their lives).
To ensure the finest views, Danson Hill was built in splendid isolation on a ridge, the highest point of the estate. It is considered one of Taylor's finest works with exterior proportions governed by the classical orders of architecture, and built to a rectangular plan with a pedimented main entrance and later single storey service wings.
The interiors reflected 18th century changes in the patterns of use and new ways of socialising; the piano nobile comprises a circuit of four rooms around an elliptical top-lit cantilever staircase, and the rooms overlooking the park are octagonal with polygonal bays (ibid., p. 16).
The Danson Hill mirrors would have been commissioned by Sir John, but probably originally conceived for the Octagon Room (Saloon), before being adjusted almost immediately for installation in the Dining Room. The anthemion and acanthus frames correspond to the frieze around the walls of the Saloon, but the acanthus frames of the crestings together with their allusion to Bacchus, god of the vine, plenty and pleasure, and Ceres, the harvest god, appear to relate more closely to decoration in the Dining Room. The foliate ornament of the swags is a prevalent motif throughout Danson Hill, mirrored above the front door and are in the Library.
This magnificent room was lavishly decorated with 'Naples yellow' walls and nineteen oil-on-canvas wall panels by the French artist, Charles Pavillon, conceived and executed in 1766; larger panels depicting mythological figures including Bacchus and Ceres, interspersed with smaller foliate and floral panels.
The Dining Room (or 'Eating Room') pier glasses are included in an 1805 handwritten Sale Inventory of Danson Hill, a document probably drawn up by John Boyd II, where they are listed as '2 large glasses'.
In circa 1863, the then owner of Danson Hill, Alfred Bean, a railway engineer, replaced the Dining Room pier glasses with Victorian plate glass that completely filled the 'triumphal arch' recesses; in 1922 the Dining Room, with plate glass installed, was photographed prior to the villa and presumably some of its contents being sold.
THE DESIGN
The design of these pier glasses can be confidently attributed to Sir William Chambers. Boyd and Chambers were close friends, the latter receiving an invitation from Sir John 'to spend a day at Danson with your Ladys' (J. Harris, Sir William Chambers, Knight of the Polar Star, London, 1970, p. 203, no. 22). Around 1768-70, Chambers supplied designs for three chimney pieces for Danson Hill including the Dining Room chimneypiece with side pilasters ornamented with a Bacchic thyrsus surmounted by a leopard's head, installed around 1770, and also for a Doric temple and 'Palladio bridge' in the park (ibid., p. 203, no. 22).
The mirrors' rectangular frames with central mask relate to Chambers' drawing for an overmantel mirror for the Saloon at Gower House, Whitehall. The ornamentation of the frame, combining anthemion and acanthus leaves, is closely related to that found in a design by Chambers for the frieze of a medal cabinet for the Earl of Charlemont (ibid., fig. 100; Ed. J. Harris, M. Snodin, Sir William Chambers, Architect to George III, New Haven and London, 1996, p. 174, fig. 261) while the advanced neo-classical crestings of seated griffins flanking a sacred urn on tripod supports feature in other Chambers' designs such as the 1770 library ceiling, at Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire, and on the staircase at Melbourne House, Piccadilly (Harris, ibid., figs. 90, 99). Seated griffins are also on a pair of ormolu candlesticks, circa 1767, at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, (Harris, Snodin, ibid., p. 161, figs. 239-241).
Given the difference in the edge mouldings of the cresting friezes and the main mirrors, it is conceivable that the mirrors were originally supplied without crestings, and that Chambers adopted the acanthus for the crestings when the mirrors were ultimately fitted in the Dining Room niches.
We would like to acknowledge the assistance of Richard Lea from English Heritage, Richard Garnier and Sarah Humphris from Bexley Heritage Trust.