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Lot Essay
This impressive giltwood mirror is attributed to the Edinburgh wright (furniture maker), William Mathie, based on a number of stylistic characteristics. The elongated form corresponds to two pairs of mirrors at Mathie’s most celebrated commission, Dumfries House, Ayrshire, supplied in 1759 to William Crichton-Dalrymple, 5th Earl of Dumfries; respectively lots 55 and 200 in ‘Dumfries House: A Chippendale Commission’, Christie’s, London, 12-13 July 2007 (before the house and its contents were saved for the nation). The decoration of sinuous giltwood foliate branches, which entwine themselves around the framework of the mirror is also found on another Dumfries mirror by Mathie, lot 250 in the same sale, and also on a mirror supplied by Mathie to Francis Charteris, 7th Earl of Wemyss (1723-1808), for Amisfield House, near Haddington, Scotland, in 1760-61, and subsequently at Gosford House, Longniddry, sold Christie’s, London, 15 November 2017, lot 100 (£100,000 including premium).
Mathie’s skill lay in the panache with which he executed his carved mirror frames: ‘Mathie knew a real joy in their creation. Trailing flowers cascade from one rococo scroll to another; aspiring plants with spiky leaves entwine themselves about the more solid framework of the glasses; gilded grass grows thickly about the inner frame’ (F. Bamford, ‘Two Scottish Wrights at Dumfries House, Furniture History, vol. 9, 1973, p. 86).
Another possible Mathie feature is the inclusion of idiosyncratic carved birds or animals, in this example the individual ho ho birds, on the Amisfield mirror playful monkeys, and on an overmantel mirror at Gosford squirrels, imagery possibly derived from French contemporary prints by Jacques Callot or Jean Pillement.
The mirror bears a paper label for Ciceri, Pini & Co., who were carvers and gilders and looking-glass manufacturers of c.1840 - 50 with business premises at Calton Street, and later 57 Frederick Street, Edinburgh; their label illustrates various mirrors and barometers that were presumably fashionable at the time. As the label states, they took over the business established by I. Zenone in 1825 - 27 (F. Bamford, A Dictionary of Edinburgh Furniture Makers, Leeds, 1983, pp. 55 and pl. 45B).
Mathie’s skill lay in the panache with which he executed his carved mirror frames: ‘Mathie knew a real joy in their creation. Trailing flowers cascade from one rococo scroll to another; aspiring plants with spiky leaves entwine themselves about the more solid framework of the glasses; gilded grass grows thickly about the inner frame’ (F. Bamford, ‘Two Scottish Wrights at Dumfries House, Furniture History, vol. 9, 1973, p. 86).
Another possible Mathie feature is the inclusion of idiosyncratic carved birds or animals, in this example the individual ho ho birds, on the Amisfield mirror playful monkeys, and on an overmantel mirror at Gosford squirrels, imagery possibly derived from French contemporary prints by Jacques Callot or Jean Pillement.
The mirror bears a paper label for Ciceri, Pini & Co., who were carvers and gilders and looking-glass manufacturers of c.1840 - 50 with business premises at Calton Street, and later 57 Frederick Street, Edinburgh; their label illustrates various mirrors and barometers that were presumably fashionable at the time. As the label states, they took over the business established by I. Zenone in 1825 - 27 (F. Bamford, A Dictionary of Edinburgh Furniture Makers, Leeds, 1983, pp. 55 and pl. 45B).