A PAIR OF CHIPPENDALE CARVED MAHOGANY AND GILTWOOD LOOKING GLASSES

AMERICAN OR ENGLISH, 1750-1780

细节

A PAIR OF CHIPPENDALE CARVED MAHOGANY AND GILTWOOD LOOKING GLASSES
American or English, 1750-1780
Each with carved and giltwood eagle finial above an elaborately carved, pierced and parcel-gilt crest over a rectangular glazed plate flanked by carved and gilt foliate streamers, above a pierced and elaborately scrolled base, (one finial replaced), the backboards inscribed in ink One of a pair of mirrors taken about 1875 from the house in Old Saybrook Connecticut which belonged to Elisha Hart---- afterwards occupied by his daughter Mrs. Jeanette Hart Hull widow of Commodore Isaac Hull
49½in. high (2)

来源

John Walton Antiques, Inc.

拍品专文

Of a type often associated with New York, this impressive pair of mirrors has a history of descent in Connecticut, and may have been made in neighboring New York, or imported from England for the home of a wealthy colonist. The early inscription on the reverse of both mirrors indicates that they first hung in the home of Elisha Hart of Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Elisha Hart (1758-1842) married Jeanette McCurdy (1762-1815), and did have a daughter, Jeanette Hart (1794-1840). However, Commodore Isaac Hull (1773-1843), the famous victor in the battle between the Constitution and the Guerrier in the War of 1812, married a different member of the Hart family, Ann Hart. How, or if Ann and Jeanette were related is not clear, as the web of similarly named, inter-related members of the family makes the later provenance opaque. It is possible that they were sisters, and that these mirrors did in fact have a connection to Isaac Hull.