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Lot Essay
This magnificent mirror-framed pier-glass, with its triumphal-arched pediment, reflects the French-fashioned Roman style popularised around 1700 by the engraved oeuvres of Daniel Marot (d.1752), 'architect' to William III, and is likely to have been commissioned about 1700 by Sir Richard Myddelton, 3rd Bt. (d.1716).
A similar mirror at Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire, with the same unusual arched mirrored cresting, may well have been amongst the furnishings supplied to Wriothesley, 2nd Duke of Bedford in 1702 by the Strand cabinet-maker John Gumley (d.1727). The Chirk mirror may therefore conceivably be by the latter (A. Bowett, English Furniture 1660-1714,'Woodbridge, 2002, pp.300-302).
In view of its enormous plate, and its consequent value, this pier glass can almost certainly be identified with the 'Pier Glass 10.0.0.' listed in the 1795 Inventiory in the Yellow Bedroom, which was one of the grandest guest appartments. This is the same value as the pair of large Charles II mirrors in the Gallery (lot 130).
A similar mirror at Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire, with the same unusual arched mirrored cresting, may well have been amongst the furnishings supplied to Wriothesley, 2nd Duke of Bedford in 1702 by the Strand cabinet-maker John Gumley (d.1727). The Chirk mirror may therefore conceivably be by the latter (A. Bowett, English Furniture 1660-1714,'Woodbridge, 2002, pp.300-302).
In view of its enormous plate, and its consequent value, this pier glass can almost certainly be identified with the 'Pier Glass 10.0.0.' listed in the 1795 Inventiory in the Yellow Bedroom, which was one of the grandest guest appartments. This is the same value as the pair of large Charles II mirrors in the Gallery (lot 130).