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Lot Essay
The mirror's Roman medallion patera is displayed amongst 'rainceau' of Roman foliage, while its sunflower pattern recalls Ovid's Metamorphoses or Loves of the Gods and the history of the hunter and poetry-deity Apollo. The latter's poetic triumph in antiquity is also symbolised by the frame's beribboned reeds, palm-leafed border and Grecian palm-flower trophy. The mirror's design features an arched base which almost certainly is shaped to accomodate a serpentine-backed settee.
This mirror is conceived in the strictly neoclassical manner popularized by Robert and James Adam during the 1760s and further disseminated in their The Works in Architecture of 1773-79 (for example, see the mirror design for the second drawing room at Derby House, Grosvenor Square (vol. II, No. 1, 1779, plate IV) as well as another for Messrs Adam at the Adelphi (vol. I, no. I, 1773, plate VIII) (reproduced in E. Harris, The Furniture of Robert Adam, London, 1963, pl.73 and 150). A similar pair of mirrors at Osterley Park, Middlesex are executed after Adam's design dated 1777 now in the Soane Museum (see M. Tomlin, Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture, London, 1972, p. 84, cat. no. K/1 and K/1a, respectively). Although records do not identify the maker of these mirrors, William Linnell is documented as having provided furniture for Osterley and worked with Adam on other notable commissions. Other mirror designs by the Linnells also compare with the present mirror (see for example, H. Hayward and P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, New York, 1980, vol. II, figs. 213-16 and 220, and a pair of pier mirrors supplied by Linnell for William Drake's Shardeloes drawing room circa 1775 and now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam illustrated ibid., vol. II, fig. 217).
Other related mirrors that display similar carved motifs include a pair formerly with Norman Adams, London, sold Sotheby's London, 30 November 2001, lot 74 (£78,300) and illustrated in C. Stevens and S. Whittington, 18th Century English Furniture: The Norman Adams Collection, Suffolk, 1983, p. 431; another pair from the Earls of Lindsey of Uffington House, Lincolnshire, illustrated in C. Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, London, 1978, vol. I, cat. no. 276; and a single mirror probably from the same workshop at Belhus, Essex, illustrated in Ibid, vol. III, p. 727.
This mirror is conceived in the strictly neoclassical manner popularized by Robert and James Adam during the 1760s and further disseminated in their The Works in Architecture of 1773-79 (for example, see the mirror design for the second drawing room at Derby House, Grosvenor Square (vol. II, No. 1, 1779, plate IV) as well as another for Messrs Adam at the Adelphi (vol. I, no. I, 1773, plate VIII) (reproduced in E. Harris, The Furniture of Robert Adam, London, 1963, pl.73 and 150). A similar pair of mirrors at Osterley Park, Middlesex are executed after Adam's design dated 1777 now in the Soane Museum (see M. Tomlin, Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture, London, 1972, p. 84, cat. no. K/1 and K/1a, respectively). Although records do not identify the maker of these mirrors, William Linnell is documented as having provided furniture for Osterley and worked with Adam on other notable commissions. Other mirror designs by the Linnells also compare with the present mirror (see for example, H. Hayward and P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, New York, 1980, vol. II, figs. 213-16 and 220, and a pair of pier mirrors supplied by Linnell for William Drake's Shardeloes drawing room circa 1775 and now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam illustrated ibid., vol. II, fig. 217).
Other related mirrors that display similar carved motifs include a pair formerly with Norman Adams, London, sold Sotheby's London, 30 November 2001, lot 74 (£78,300) and illustrated in C. Stevens and S. Whittington, 18th Century English Furniture: The Norman Adams Collection, Suffolk, 1983, p. 431; another pair from the Earls of Lindsey of Uffington House, Lincolnshire, illustrated in C. Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, London, 1978, vol. I, cat. no. 276; and a single mirror probably from the same workshop at Belhus, Essex, illustrated in Ibid, vol. III, p. 727.