CIRCA 1720, POSSIBLY SWEDISH

Details

A PAIR OF GEORGE I GILTWOOD AND GESSO PIER GLASSES
CIRCA 1720, POSSIBLY SWEDISH
Each with arched and bevelled divided central plates, the crestings surmounted by a scallop shell above a gilt and blue verre eglomisé panel depicting a flower-filled vase, flanked by stylised eagle masks, scrolling foliage and urn finials above engraved outer plates between composite capitals, the shaped aprons inset with a gilt and blue verre eglomisé panel, the reverse of the frames inscribed 'NO.1' and variously '1' and 'NO.2' and variously '2' respectively, some later replacements and restoration to the decoration, one finial on each replaced, one apron with a later section to one end, the border glass largely original, 'NO. 1' with an original upper plate, the central plate and backboard replaced, 'NO.2' with a replaced upper plate and a possibly resilvered central plate and original backboards, the present gilding is a 19th century scheme with traces of an earlier silver-gilt scheme beneath, a detailed gilding analysis is available from the department
93 in. (236 cm.) high; 35 in. (89 cm.) wide (2)

Provenance

Purchased from Partridge, London.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

These pier-glasses, designed in the French/antique manner popularised by William III's Paris-trained architect Daniel Marot (d.1752), each have a scalloped and triumphal-arched pediment crowned by enflamed sacred-urns accompanying golden veil-draped flowers. The latters' plinth-supported vase is displayed in a blue medallion, that recalls Cupid's 'target' shield and is framed in a wave-scrolled cartouche. This bears the nature-deity Venus' scallop-shell badge, and appears to derive from an engraving that celebrates Love's triumph and the Element of Water, and featured in Marot's Second Livre d'Ornements, 1702. The engraving's Arcadian 'Pan' mask is here substituted by the bacchic lion key-stone of the mirrored frame, where it is tied by an engraved water-bubbled ribbon-guilloche. With its richly carved cresting, it can be related to an early 18th Century pier-glass with blue-ground verre églomisé decoration that was formerly at Halnaby, Yorkshire. It has recently been attributed to the workshops of the Hugeunot court carvers Thomas and René Pelletier (T. Murdoch, 'Jean, Rene and Thomas Pelletier, Part II', Burlington Magazine, June 1998 pp 363-374, fig. 16). Shortly before the death of William III, this same workshop also supplied Hampton Court Palace with pier-set candelabra, whose vase-capped, hermed tripod pillars bear Jupiter's sacred eagles, such as support these mirrors cartouches. Their mirrored pilasters, with urn-capped Composite capitals of Roman foliage, relate to those of a pier-glass commissioned in 1714 for the Prince of Wales' apartment at Hampton Court palace from John Gumley (d.1729), following his establishment of the Lambeth glass house in 1705 (R. Edwards and M. Jourdain, Georgian Cabinet-Makers, London, 1955, fig. 17; and I. Caldwell 'John Gumley, James Moore and King George I', Antique Collector, April 1987, p.70).

One of a pair of related pier-glasses, surmounted by a scarlet verre eglomisé medallioned cartouche, is illustrated R.W. Symonds, 'Giles Grendey and the export trade of English Furniture to Spain', Apollo, December 1935 (fig. VI).

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