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Lot Essay
The pier glasses are designed in the George II antique manner, their temple pediments enclosing Roman portrait medallions and supported by scrolled trusses. Their architecture recalls the early 17th century Palladian style of Inigo Jones who designed a Vineyard Gate for Oatlands Palace, Surrey, circa 1615, which featured a triangular pediment centred by a roundel, and was depicted in Paul van Somer's portrait of Anne of Denmark (1577). The gateway was saved from destruction and rebuilt by Henry, 9th Earl of Lincoln, a friend of both Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington and his disciple the artist/architect William Kent (d.1748), two of the most conspicuous proponents of the Palladian style in the 18th century. The gateway's design was published by John Vardy in Some Designs of Inigo Jones and William Kent, 1744, pl.1, the plate described as `Gateway at Ld Lincolns at Weybridge'.
The closely related design for a pier glass frame was published by William Jones in The Gentleman and Builder's Companion, 1739. Jones, whose address was given as near the Chapel in King Street, Golden Square was architect of the Rotunda at Ranelagh Gardens, Chelsea (opened in 1742), and was appointed Surveyor to the East India Company in 1752 (E. White, Pictorial Dictionary of British 18th Century Furniture Design, Woodbridge, 1990, p.35, and p.323, pl.45..
The closely related design for a pier glass frame was published by William Jones in The Gentleman and Builder's Companion, 1739. Jones, whose address was given as near the Chapel in King Street, Golden Square was architect of the Rotunda at Ranelagh Gardens, Chelsea (opened in 1742), and was appointed Surveyor to the East India Company in 1752 (E. White, Pictorial Dictionary of British 18th Century Furniture Design, Woodbridge, 1990, p.35, and p.323, pl.45..