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Lot Essay
This maganificent flower-festooned pier-glass, serpentined in the George II French 'picturesque' manner, may have been commissioned in the mid-1750s by Sir Richard Grosvenor, 7th Bt., created Baron Grosvenor of Eaton (1761) and Earl Grosvenor (1784) (d. 1802). While its design and exuberant carving can be attributed to Matthias Lock (d. 1766), specialist carver of Long Acre, London.
The golden Arcadian ornament, symbolising Peace and Plenty, is inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses or Loves of the Gods and recalls the history of Diana, celebrated goddess of the Chase, Moon deity and sister of the sun god Apollo. The head of the Goddess is framed in a cartouche on the trellised plinth, which is tied by Roman acanthus to pedestal-supported trophies of the chase, comprising her weapons of bow and quiver and her horn for summoning her followers. At the sides, ribbon-scrolled and reed-wrapped pilasters support rustic plinths over which hounds prepare to vault in pursuit of a boar emerging from the hollow of the voluted pediment. According to one story, Diana punished the Caledonian's failure to honour her temple by sending a boar to ravage their land in Aetolia. It gained particular popularity at George II's court, when the name 'Atalanta', a participant in the Caledonian story, was chosen by George Frederic Handel (d. 1759) for the title of his pastoral libretto. Adapted from Belisario Valeriano's La Caccia in Etolia (1715), it was performed in 1736 to celebrate Frederick, Prince of Wales's marriage to Augusta, Princess of Saxe-Gotha.
Diana, in her various guises, served as an appropriate figure of the interior as well as the exterior of a house. As goddess of the chase she could feature in parks, the preserves of animals; while in stately apartments she could serve as leader of the chaste in marriage vows. Her appearance on this mirror can trace its origins back to early 18th Century French ornament, such as that conceived in 1713 by Antoine-Franois Vass for the trophy frame of a hunting vignette, symbolic of the Element of Earth, that was executed for the Galerie Dore at the htel de Toulouse, Paris. Here Diana's head appears on a cartouche while her hounds pursue a stag emerging from the frame's voluted pediment (K. Scott, The Rococo Interior, London, 1995, fig. 209). In particular the work of the artist Jacques de la Joue (d. 1761), Louis XV's 'peintre ordinaire', appears to provide a source for this mirror's cresting. His composition, emblematic of the Season of Autumn and featuring hounds and a water-spouting boar on the scrolled pediment of a park fountain, was adapted as ornament for a 'sideboard-buffet' and published in Gabriel Huquier's Livres de Buffets, 1735 (see M. Roland Michel, Lajoue et l'Art Rocaille, Paris, 1984, fig. 357). The work of the peintre dcorateur Christophe Huet (d. 1759), such as L'Hallali du sanglier (1728), and paintings entitled Dcors de fontaines or Les attributs de la Chasse, also played its part. His inventions were popularised in England by Franois Vivares, who published A New Book of Hunting Trophies Engrav'd from the Designs of the Celebrated Monsieur Huet properly adapated to the New Manner of Ornamenting Rooms and Screens with Prints, 1757.
The frame's 'picturesque' form follows the 'natural' serpentined line discussed by the artist William Hogarth in his Analysis of Beauty, 1753 and illustrated in furniture pattern books, such as Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, London, 1754. Chippendale had been assisted in this venture by Matthias Lock, who himself had published 'picturesque' pattern books for wood carvers. Indeed among his publications were Six Sconces (1744) and Six Tables (1746), and in conjunction with H. Copland, A New Book of Ornaments (1752), which later earned him praise 'as the best Draftsman in that way that had ever been in England'. The base of the mirror, evolved from the type of hollow-fronted pedestal supporting a cartouche, that Copland had illustrated in A New Book of Ornaments, 1746 (pl. 5). The latter also featured a cartouche of flower-festooned reeds and water-splashes surmounted by a hollowed cornice with pedestals straggled by a monumental dragon (M. Heckscher, 'Lock and Copland: A Catalogue of the Engraved Ornament', Furniture History, 1979, pl. 50).
While attributing the superb design of this mirror to Lock, it is also worth noting that Vivares's engraving of a boar, which featured as the frontispiece to his 1757 publication, is also preserved in a workshop scrapbook assembled in the same year and bearing the inscription Ornaments by Lock...Vivares and Others (M. Snodin et al., Rococo: Art and Design in Hogarth's England, 1984, p. 185, no. L71). The most important link with Lock is the pier-glass, likewise embellished with flower-festoons and hunting trophies, that he had previously designed to accompany a marble-topped pier-table in the tapestry-hung room at Hinton House, Somerset. The mirror as well as the original sketch are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Here as well, Lock took inspiration from Lajoue's inventions which had been published in Huquier's Livre de bordures d'crans la chinois, 1737 (Snodin et al., op. cit., pp. 165 and 166).
The mirror was sold in the 1960s by the Duke of Westminster. In 1755 his ancestor Sir Richard Grosvenor had inherited huge estates both in Cheshire as well as London's West End. Being descended from an ancient Norman family, whose name translates as 'great hunter', the Talbot hound, which had served as the family crest and was later adopted as supporters for the family coat-of-arms, could also have played its part in the choice of ornament for this ultra-French and fantastic mirror.
The golden Arcadian ornament, symbolising Peace and Plenty, is inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses or Loves of the Gods and recalls the history of Diana, celebrated goddess of the Chase, Moon deity and sister of the sun god Apollo. The head of the Goddess is framed in a cartouche on the trellised plinth, which is tied by Roman acanthus to pedestal-supported trophies of the chase, comprising her weapons of bow and quiver and her horn for summoning her followers. At the sides, ribbon-scrolled and reed-wrapped pilasters support rustic plinths over which hounds prepare to vault in pursuit of a boar emerging from the hollow of the voluted pediment. According to one story, Diana punished the Caledonian's failure to honour her temple by sending a boar to ravage their land in Aetolia. It gained particular popularity at George II's court, when the name 'Atalanta', a participant in the Caledonian story, was chosen by George Frederic Handel (d. 1759) for the title of his pastoral libretto. Adapted from Belisario Valeriano's La Caccia in Etolia (1715), it was performed in 1736 to celebrate Frederick, Prince of Wales's marriage to Augusta, Princess of Saxe-Gotha.
Diana, in her various guises, served as an appropriate figure of the interior as well as the exterior of a house. As goddess of the chase she could feature in parks, the preserves of animals; while in stately apartments she could serve as leader of the chaste in marriage vows. Her appearance on this mirror can trace its origins back to early 18th Century French ornament, such as that conceived in 1713 by Antoine-Franois Vass for the trophy frame of a hunting vignette, symbolic of the Element of Earth, that was executed for the Galerie Dore at the htel de Toulouse, Paris. Here Diana's head appears on a cartouche while her hounds pursue a stag emerging from the frame's voluted pediment (K. Scott, The Rococo Interior, London, 1995, fig. 209). In particular the work of the artist Jacques de la Joue (d. 1761), Louis XV's 'peintre ordinaire', appears to provide a source for this mirror's cresting. His composition, emblematic of the Season of Autumn and featuring hounds and a water-spouting boar on the scrolled pediment of a park fountain, was adapted as ornament for a 'sideboard-buffet' and published in Gabriel Huquier's Livres de Buffets, 1735 (see M. Roland Michel, Lajoue et l'Art Rocaille, Paris, 1984, fig. 357). The work of the peintre dcorateur Christophe Huet (d. 1759), such as L'Hallali du sanglier (1728), and paintings entitled Dcors de fontaines or Les attributs de la Chasse, also played its part. His inventions were popularised in England by Franois Vivares, who published A New Book of Hunting Trophies Engrav'd from the Designs of the Celebrated Monsieur Huet properly adapated to the New Manner of Ornamenting Rooms and Screens with Prints, 1757.
The frame's 'picturesque' form follows the 'natural' serpentined line discussed by the artist William Hogarth in his Analysis of Beauty, 1753 and illustrated in furniture pattern books, such as Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, London, 1754. Chippendale had been assisted in this venture by Matthias Lock, who himself had published 'picturesque' pattern books for wood carvers. Indeed among his publications were Six Sconces (1744) and Six Tables (1746), and in conjunction with H. Copland, A New Book of Ornaments (1752), which later earned him praise 'as the best Draftsman in that way that had ever been in England'. The base of the mirror, evolved from the type of hollow-fronted pedestal supporting a cartouche, that Copland had illustrated in A New Book of Ornaments, 1746 (pl. 5). The latter also featured a cartouche of flower-festooned reeds and water-splashes surmounted by a hollowed cornice with pedestals straggled by a monumental dragon (M. Heckscher, 'Lock and Copland: A Catalogue of the Engraved Ornament', Furniture History, 1979, pl. 50).
While attributing the superb design of this mirror to Lock, it is also worth noting that Vivares's engraving of a boar, which featured as the frontispiece to his 1757 publication, is also preserved in a workshop scrapbook assembled in the same year and bearing the inscription Ornaments by Lock...Vivares and Others (M. Snodin et al., Rococo: Art and Design in Hogarth's England, 1984, p. 185, no. L71). The most important link with Lock is the pier-glass, likewise embellished with flower-festoons and hunting trophies, that he had previously designed to accompany a marble-topped pier-table in the tapestry-hung room at Hinton House, Somerset. The mirror as well as the original sketch are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Here as well, Lock took inspiration from Lajoue's inventions which had been published in Huquier's Livre de bordures d'crans la chinois, 1737 (Snodin et al., op. cit., pp. 165 and 166).
The mirror was sold in the 1960s by the Duke of Westminster. In 1755 his ancestor Sir Richard Grosvenor had inherited huge estates both in Cheshire as well as London's West End. Being descended from an ancient Norman family, whose name translates as 'great hunter', the Talbot hound, which had served as the family crest and was later adopted as supporters for the family coat-of-arms, could also have played its part in the choice of ornament for this ultra-French and fantastic mirror.