A LOUIS XIV EBONY, AMARANTH, BOXWOOD, HORN AND GREEN-STAINED HORN MARQUETRY MIRROR

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This magnificent collection of 17th and 18th Century mirrors is unparalleled in quality, rarity and diversity. The sale of this exquisite group, assembled by one of the greatest patrons of our time, is a first in the art world. It offers collectors the unique opportunity of acquiring their own piece of reflected glory. Intrigued by his reflection in water, Man tried to perpetuate this miraculous phenomenon. For 40 centuries, artists and artisans contrived, like alchemists, to give bronze, silver, gold, tin, steel and rock crystal the wonderful qualities of calm water. However, in Venice in the late 15th and early 16th Century new techniques were developed for crystalline and blown glass, and the first mirrors with reflecting glass were created. The decoration given to these first mirrors was immediately very precious and intricately worked, using the most precious materials such as gold and silver, ivory, enamels and corals. The mirror became the most highly prized of all accessories and some of the earliest examples were already protected by fitted cases of leather or carved ivory, painted with courtley scenes. The superb collection of mirrors offered in the forthcoming sale gives an overview of their history and stylistic development. Various techniques are represented, and the very best examples of each style and period. Reflected Glory Peter Marino Spectacular mirrors, whether Rococo or mid-century modern, are no longer regarded as mere accessories, but rather as works of art in their own right. People used to say, if you can't afford a good painting, buy a mirror. But a great mirror is both a great piece of furniture and a great work of art. Besides, we all need mirrors, whether we live in a dark New York apartment or an airy house in the mountains. In 30 years, all of my clients, even major art collectors, have bought at least several mirrors from me. A mirror adds another window to a room, and as far as I'm concerned, the more windows, the better. Prices have been climbing in recent years, and more collectors seem to be paying attention to mirrors. In fact, they are becoming so prized and collectible that even early and mid-20th Century mirrors are going for over $100,000. Mirrors are so commonplace that we take them for granted today, but they were a big deal when they were first produced, in Venice in the 16th Century. I'm a big admirer of Venetian mirrors, and I sell them all the time. There are particularly fabulous examples because Venice was a major centre for glass production. At first, how they were made was a great secret, which only added to their allure. Louis XIV was determined to have mirrors made in France. His craftsmen figured out how to create them using much larger pieces of glass than the Venetians, and then, of course, he constructed the spectacular Galerie des Glaces at Versailles. I would like to start with a Venetian mirror from 1730 we bought recently at Galerie J. Kugel in Paris for a client in Santa Barbara. Like all great examples, the mirror and the frame should be designed together. There's a big difference between doing it that way, which is the right way, and just taking a mirror and sticking it in a frame made for a painting. I love how intricate it is. Not only does it have a lavish gilt-wood frame, but the makers just could not resist insetting additional, smaller mirrors into the frame itself. The largest of these is set on the top and has scenes of gods and goddesses etched into the glass. The frame is crowned with carved figures of gods and goddesses. All of these elements come together in a spectacular Rococo crescendo. If you are in the market for a mirror of this calibre, I suggest looking at two that were recently available. One is a German piece from the Louis XV period at Segoura in Paris. Its cast-bronze, which makes it extraordinary because most mirrors of this type are made from carved wood. This is why it has a price of €1 million ($1.2 million). I can't imagine how this level of workmanship was achieved. And the effect is exactly what one would want from German Rococo: a lightness of spirit. It probably weighs a ton, but it looks as if it is floating off the wall. The other example is Venetian, from circa 1700, at Carlton Hobbs's gallery in New York. The frame is carved in the sumptuous manner of the great Venetian furniture-maker Andrea Brustolon, and such deep, three-dimensional carving is difficult to achieve. It is priced at $285,000. I understand that these prices may exceed many budgets. That's why I encourage people to consider buying mirrors at auction. For some reason, mirrors are like carpets at auction - collectors stay away and let dealers have them. With most private buyers out of the mix, you can usually get better prices. I'm thinking of the Piedmontese Rococo mirror we put in the dining room of a New York townhouse. We got it for the unbelievably good price of $27,600 at Phillips, de Pury & Luxembourg in New York back in 2002. With its carved decoration in the style of Jean Bérain, you get a whole history of Rococo design in the form of a mirror. Recognising its important role in this rising category, a sale devoted entirely to mirrors was held in London last June. It had many great pieces, including some majolica ones, but the best thing in the sale was a gilt-metal and rock-crystal mirror. I think it was well worth its £120-180,000 ($220-330,000) estimate. If it ever comes up again, buy it - something this superb is one of a kind. Sometimes I think people are nervous about putting that kind of money into mirrors, largely because they were considered accessories for so long. But on other occasions, I can't believe the high prices. In London in December, a fine, rare circa 1680 Trapani mirror - a special type made with inlaid coral and mother-of-pearl - attracted many bidders and sold for £187,000 ($329,000). That's a pretty high price to pay for a mirror at auction, but I was happy to see the interest in such a wonderful object. I'm going to skip the 19th Century because I find most mirrors of that period uninteresting. The early 20th Century, on the other hand, featured designs by the great Wiener Werkstätte architect Dagobert Peche. This past November, there was an important sale at a Viennese auction house. I bid up to €100,000 for a tiny mirror with a complicated gilt frame, but it sold for €134,000 ($157,000). You can still get simpler Peches for less. Later in the sale, one went for €39,040 ($46,000), and another, of which there is an example in the Neue Galerie in New York, brought €48,800 ($57,000). Because the market is so high, I've noticed that it has spawned copies, but only of pieces that are not technically difficult to do. For example, making a copy of that top-selling Peche piece would be foolish - it would cost nearly as much as buying the original. But reproducing the 1940s designs of someone like Gilbert Poillerat makes sense, at least financially. Also notable is the current demand for mirrors from the 1950s and '60s by Line Vautrin, a jewellery designer who worked in Paris. I bid on these for clients all the time. In fact, a few years ago I put an entire collection of Vautrin mirrors on the silver leather walls of a Palm Beach home, just before prices started going through the roof. These have become extremely collectible. What's crazy is that the frames are made of resin - essentially, they're plastic! At Christie's New York in December, two Vautrin mirrors, estimated at $40,000 to $60,000 each, sold for $168,000 and $144,000. I find this extraordinary. Fortunately, smaller examples can still be found for less; the lowest price at the Christie's sale was $13,200. There are many wonderful mirrors available on the market, but when I can't find the appropriate one for a client, I design it myself, or I commission an artist to make one. I work a lot with André Dubreuil, Laurence Montano and Robert Goossens, who makes incredible mirrors from blackened pyrite and semiprecious materials. I think they will increase in value because they are handmade and technically difficult. They are really works of art. One day I would like to do an exhibition about mirrors. But I would leave the hanging to the art handlers. After all, if you break one, it's seven years of bad luck. Peter Marino is head of a large international architecture and interior design firm. This article was published in Art and Auction, February 2006. Courtesy of Art and Auction Magazine.

A LOUIS XIV EBONY, AMARANTH, BOXWOOD, HORN AND GREEN-STAINED HORN MARQUETRY MIRROR

LATE 17TH CENTURY

Details

A LOUIS XIV EBONY, AMARANTH, BOXWOOD, HORN AND GREEN-STAINED HORN MARQUETRY MIRROR
LATE 17TH CENTURY
Of rectangular shape, inlaid with scrolling foliage within moulded borders, the lime back frame lacking suspention loop
10 in. (25.5 cm.) x 8¾ in. (22 cm.)

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium. On occasion, Christie's has a direct financial interest in lots consigned for sale which may include guaranteeing a minimum price or making an advance to the consignor that is secured solely by consigned property. This is such a lot. This indicates both in cases where Christie's holds the financial interest on its own, and in cases where Christie's has financed all or a part of such interest through a third party. Such third parties generally benefit financially if a guaranteed lot is sold successfully and may incur a loss if the sale is not successful.

Lot Essay

With its distinctive marquetry of boxwood, horn and stained horn on an ebony ground, this exquisite mirror relates to the marquetry of the ébéniste du Roi Pierre Gole (circa 1620-1684). Early in his career he produced cabinets in ebony but progressed to floral marquetry, for which he became particularly famed.
Among the pieces recently published in Th. H. Lunsingh Scheurleer's catalogue raisonné of the cabinet-maker (Pierre Gole, ébéniste de Louis XIV, Dijon, 2005), several cabinets are embellished with marquetry related to that of the present mirror. They include a cabinet in the Dallas Museum of Art, illustrated in C.L. Venable, Decorative Arts. Highlights from the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection, 1995, p.48-49; another at Burghley House, illustrated in Th. H. Lunsingh Scheurleer, op. cit., p.124-125 and the most famous of them, the cabinet in the Victoria & Albert Museum, illustrated in A. Pradère, French Furniture Makers, Paris, 1989, p.44.

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