CIRCA 1780

This impressive pier glass illustrates the change in taste towards more severe outlines in furniture forms in the latter part of the 18th century. A series of drawings by John Linnell for such mirrors held in the Prints & Drawings department of the Victoria & Albert Museum, some featuring classical medallions, demonstrates this evolving fashion (A Miscellaneous Collection of Original Designs, made, and for the most part executed, during an extensive Practice of many years in the first line of his Profession, by John Linnell, Upholsterer Carver & Cabinet Maker. Selected from his Portfolio's at his Decease, by C. H. Tatham Architect. AD 1800). Similar designs were incorporated into Hepplewhite’s The Cabinet-maker and Upholsterer’s Guide (1788), plate 6; in the pattern book’s introduction, Hepplewhite wrote, ‘Six designs for square glasses are here shown, which is the shape most in fashion at this time’. A closely related mirror with medallion and wheat sheaves is illustrated in F. Lewis Hinckley, Queen Anne & Georgian Looking Glasses, London, 1987, fig. 255.