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拍品專文
This rare and early tripartite overmantel mirror is inscribed with the name of the Strand glass-maker William German. Although a chalk signature is unusual - as most makers inscriptions tend to be in pencil or ink at this date - it is certainly possible that German could have signed it himself as a means of ensuring that he was paid by whoever retailed the mirror, once it was sold. It could equally well have been added by the frame-maker or gilder who supplied the frame, thus ensuring that the ownership of the extremely valuable mirror plates was recorded.
With its triumphal arched frame, it is conceived in the French/Antique fashion popularised by the engraved Oeuvres of William III's Paris-trained architect Daniel Marot (d.1752). A related overmantel with blue glass borders was introduced, probably by Gerrit Jensen, for the King's Apartments at Hampton Court Palace circa 1700, whilst further related examples were supplied to John, 5th Earl of Exeter for Burghley House, Lincolnshire and for the Blaythwayt family at Dyrham Park - where a similar arched example is desribed in the 'Great Room above Stairs in the 1710 inventory A. Bowett, English Furniture 1660-1714 From Charles II to Queen Anne, London, 2002, pp.297-8).
WILLIAM GERMAN
William German was born in about 1653, the son of a glazier from Uxbridge in Middlesex. On 21 October 1669 he began his apprenticeship with Thomas Wratten who was located in the parish of St. Bride Fleet Street in Farringdon. Wratten was a prestigious member of the Joiners' Company having become a liveryman in 1660 and served as master of the Company twice in 1678 and 1685. Although there is no documentary proof of Wratten's occupation, Farringdon was an area of London where there were several known cabinet and looking glass makers in the late 17th century, some who are remembered through labelled furniture, trade cards, and bills, such as Thomas Pistor and Philip Hunt. When considering Wratten's location and his apprentice's signed mirror, it is likely that he was a cabinet and looking glass maker and moreover, because William German's father was a glazier, it may be that he apprenticed his son to a London looking glass and cabinetmaker in order to enhance the family business.
William German completed his apprenticeship in 1676 and would have been free to set up his own business after serving a further two-year period as a journeyman. This required capital and it may be that he had no independent means and therefore spent much of the 1680s working as a journeyman because there is no record of him binding an apprentice before 1688 and this is usually an indication that a tradesman had established a business. By 1692 he was living with his wife and two apprentices in the parish of St. Dunstan in the East, near the Tower of London, where he paid an annual rent of £32 and declared a stock in trade valued at £25.
St. Dunstan in the East was a manufacturing area with scores of trades such as glaziers, glass grinders, joiners and founders and these would have been both convenient and beneficial to a looking glass and cabinetmaker. However, this was not a salubrious part of the City and would not have been a place popular for retailing luxury goods like mirrors. It is most likely that German was subcontracted by retailers to produce goods for them to sell in fashionable shopping areas of the City like Cheapside, St. Paul's Churchyard or Ludgate Hill, the area of London where German had served his apprenticeship. His signature on the back of the mirror may have been a way of identifying himself to his retailer so that he was paid once his product was sold.
German was still in Tower Ward in 1695. He may well have been there at a later date and this can be documented through various City tax records held in the Guildhall Library.
We are grateful to Laurie Lindey for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.
With its triumphal arched frame, it is conceived in the French/Antique fashion popularised by the engraved Oeuvres of William III's Paris-trained architect Daniel Marot (d.1752). A related overmantel with blue glass borders was introduced, probably by Gerrit Jensen, for the King's Apartments at Hampton Court Palace circa 1700, whilst further related examples were supplied to John, 5th Earl of Exeter for Burghley House, Lincolnshire and for the Blaythwayt family at Dyrham Park - where a similar arched example is desribed in the 'Great Room above Stairs in the 1710 inventory A. Bowett, English Furniture 1660-1714 From Charles II to Queen Anne, London, 2002, pp.297-8).
WILLIAM GERMAN
William German was born in about 1653, the son of a glazier from Uxbridge in Middlesex. On 21 October 1669 he began his apprenticeship with Thomas Wratten who was located in the parish of St. Bride Fleet Street in Farringdon. Wratten was a prestigious member of the Joiners' Company having become a liveryman in 1660 and served as master of the Company twice in 1678 and 1685. Although there is no documentary proof of Wratten's occupation, Farringdon was an area of London where there were several known cabinet and looking glass makers in the late 17th century, some who are remembered through labelled furniture, trade cards, and bills, such as Thomas Pistor and Philip Hunt. When considering Wratten's location and his apprentice's signed mirror, it is likely that he was a cabinet and looking glass maker and moreover, because William German's father was a glazier, it may be that he apprenticed his son to a London looking glass and cabinetmaker in order to enhance the family business.
William German completed his apprenticeship in 1676 and would have been free to set up his own business after serving a further two-year period as a journeyman. This required capital and it may be that he had no independent means and therefore spent much of the 1680s working as a journeyman because there is no record of him binding an apprentice before 1688 and this is usually an indication that a tradesman had established a business. By 1692 he was living with his wife and two apprentices in the parish of St. Dunstan in the East, near the Tower of London, where he paid an annual rent of £32 and declared a stock in trade valued at £25.
St. Dunstan in the East was a manufacturing area with scores of trades such as glaziers, glass grinders, joiners and founders and these would have been both convenient and beneficial to a looking glass and cabinetmaker. However, this was not a salubrious part of the City and would not have been a place popular for retailing luxury goods like mirrors. It is most likely that German was subcontracted by retailers to produce goods for them to sell in fashionable shopping areas of the City like Cheapside, St. Paul's Churchyard or Ludgate Hill, the area of London where German had served his apprenticeship. His signature on the back of the mirror may have been a way of identifying himself to his retailer so that he was paid once his product was sold.
German was still in Tower Ward in 1695. He may well have been there at a later date and this can be documented through various City tax records held in the Guildhall Library.
We are grateful to Laurie Lindey for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.