POSSIBLY PIEDMONTESE, SECOND HALF 19TH CENTURY

This imposing mirror with giltwood and gesso frame is set with pierced recesses and border-glass finely etched with lambrequins, mythological figures and cornered by cameo portraits. With its large plate and profuse decoration it dates from the second-half of the nineteenth century but very much recalls the Baroque style of a century prior. A closely related mirror of similar proportions, with comparable engraved borders and cresting centred by a coat-of-arms, is illustrated in G. Child, World Mirrors 1650-1900, London, 1990, p. 290 pl. 653.

The arms to the centre of the cresting belong to Carlo Archinto, Conte di Tainate (1669-1732), a Milanese nobleman and member of a prominent banking family. He founded the Accademia dei Cavalieri in Milan and was awarded the prestigious Ordine del Toson d'oro, the emblem of which, a gold collar, he sold to fund the building of a chapel in Corbetta. This and other generous bequests helped ensure his lasting legacy in the region.

Stylistic similarities between the carved giltwood elements of this mirror and the console (lot 72), notably the masks and the beaded-gesso molding of the strapwork and frames, suggest that the two may be from the same workshop, and that the mirror might have originally been intended to hang above the console.