CIRCA 1760

With its scrolled and acanthus-wrapped ribbons enclosing a triumphal arch beneath the broken pediment surmounted by a ruffled shell motif, this mirror was conceived in the George III French picturesque manner. This mirror and a closely related one that sold Christie's London, 9 July 1998, lot 43 (19,550) are derived in from a pier-glass design executed circa 1755-60 by William and John Linnell cabinet-makers and upholsterers of Berkeley Square (H. Hayward and P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, London, 1980, vol. II, fig. 189). The remarkable similarities between the two mirrors suggests they were produced in the same workshop at around the same time. A third pier-glass with the same distinctive ruffled shell cresting and design source was installed in the Gilt Parlour at Croome Court during the late 1750s or early 1760s (illustrated in H. Avray Tipping, English Homes, period IV, vol. I, p. 168, fig. 224) during which time the Linnell firm was commissioned by the 6th Earl of Coventry (d. 1809) to execute a wide range of elaborately carved and gilt decorations, molding and furnishings in the French taste.