CIRCA 1770

Displaying an understanding of the early neo-classic taste, this mirror is similar in design to the work of Matthias Lock. A masterful designer and specialist carver, Lock first published several pattern books in the French rococo taste but he went on in later life to publish A New Book of Pier Frames in 1769. A mirror which closely resembles the current lot was included in this, his last publication, as plate 5 (see M. Hecksher, 'Lock and Copland: A Catalogue of the Engraved Ornament', Furniture History, 1979, pl. 66b). Lock earned enormous respect from his colleagues who at the time of his death described him as 'the best Draftsman in that way that had ever been in England'.