Lot Essay
This oval-medallion pier-glass, with foliate frame of ribbon-tied branches, displays the sun-god Apollo's mask in a radiating sunburst. It is closely related to a two-branch girandole at The Vyne, Hampshire, which was supplied to Anthony Chute (d.1754) before 1754. In that year it was listed in the inventory prepared by the cabinet-maker William Vile as being in the Chapel Parlour: 'A glass with Apollo's head in a carved and gilded frame'. The Vyne mirror is illustrated in R. Edwards and P. Macquoid, The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev. ed., London, 1954, vol. II, p. 334, fig. 71. Vile appears to have been supplying furniture to Chute at The Vyne since the begininning of his cabinet-making partnership with John Cobb in 1750 (see: The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, Leeds, 1986, p. 926)
Apollo in glory appeared both on a ceiling at Woburn Abbey and on an overmantel which is likely to have been executed in the mid-1750s under the direction of the architect Henry Flitcroft (d.1769; see: G. Worsley, 'Woburn Abbey', Country Life, 22 April 1993, pp. 51-52). The overmantel at Woburn may have been supplied by Whittle and Norman. They provided pier-glass mirrors surmounted by related deity masks with knotted hair in 1760 (see: R. Edwards, 'Patrons of Taste and Sensibility', Apollo, December 1965, p. 450).
A related smaller mirror, with flowerhead-carved frame, was exhibited by Gerald Kerin Ltd. at the Antique Dealers' Fair, June 1948 (Catalogue, p. 58)
WERRINGTON PARK
Werrington Park was a property of the Abbots of Tavistock and it changed hands several times after the dissolution of that monastery in the 1530s. In 1651 it came into the hands of Sir William Morice, later King Charles II's Secretary of State. His family later added a mid-18th Century range. An inventory was taken of the house in 1763. The house was sold in 1775 to the Dukes of Northumberland who themselves sold it after the first parliamentary Reform Act of 1832 altered their political interests in the area. Since the 1880s it has belonged to the Williams family of Caerhays.
The 1763 inventory is in no way as detailed as William Vile's earlier list at The Vyne but it contains the following entry, which may refer to the present mirror:
A glass in an oval carved and painted frame, the plate 3ft. by 2ft.6in
The actual height of this plate is a little more than three feet but the difference might be explained by the difficulty of measuring accurately over the Apollo mask.
We are grateful to Michael Williams, Esq., for his help in preparing this catalogue entry
Apollo in glory appeared both on a ceiling at Woburn Abbey and on an overmantel which is likely to have been executed in the mid-1750s under the direction of the architect Henry Flitcroft (d.1769; see: G. Worsley, 'Woburn Abbey', Country Life, 22 April 1993, pp. 51-52). The overmantel at Woburn may have been supplied by Whittle and Norman. They provided pier-glass mirrors surmounted by related deity masks with knotted hair in 1760 (see: R. Edwards, 'Patrons of Taste and Sensibility', Apollo, December 1965, p. 450).
A related smaller mirror, with flowerhead-carved frame, was exhibited by Gerald Kerin Ltd. at the Antique Dealers' Fair, June 1948 (Catalogue, p. 58)
WERRINGTON PARK
Werrington Park was a property of the Abbots of Tavistock and it changed hands several times after the dissolution of that monastery in the 1530s. In 1651 it came into the hands of Sir William Morice, later King Charles II's Secretary of State. His family later added a mid-18th Century range. An inventory was taken of the house in 1763. The house was sold in 1775 to the Dukes of Northumberland who themselves sold it after the first parliamentary Reform Act of 1832 altered their political interests in the area. Since the 1880s it has belonged to the Williams family of Caerhays.
The 1763 inventory is in no way as detailed as William Vile's earlier list at The Vyne but it contains the following entry, which may refer to the present mirror:
A glass in an oval carved and painted frame, the plate 3ft. by 2ft.6in
The actual height of this plate is a little more than three feet but the difference might be explained by the difficulty of measuring accurately over the Apollo mask.
We are grateful to Michael Williams, Esq., for his help in preparing this catalogue entry