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Lot Essay
This impressive pair of pier glass is characteristic of the work of Lenygon & Co., Interior Decorators, of 31 Old Burlington Street, London, and Keeble Ltd, of Carlisle House, London.
Lenygon, regarded in their day as a model for the modern 'interior decorator', had a number of important aristocratic and wealthy clients and patrons including the Duke of Devonshire, the Earl of Pembroke and W.H. Lever, later Lord Leverhulme, for whom they provided a complete decorating service and supplied antique and high quality copies of Georgian furniture and works of art. In the same period, the owner, Francis Lenygon published The Decoration of Furniture of English Mansions during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Although many of the illustrations in this publication were genuine pieces, others were almost certainly reproductions by the firm.
Keeble, established in 1899, offered a similar service, including the creation of period-style rooms in new buildings. The firm was employed in the 1920s by Randal, 8th Earl of Berkeley to completely refurbish Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire. Their remit was to restore the castle 'as far as possible to its original plan', primarily the installation of authentic medieval architectural masonry to replace later accretions, but also replacing much of the furniture at Berkeley, sourcing objects through antique dealers in England, France and Italy (James Miller, 'Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire II', Country Life, 9 December 2004, p. 57). The present lot relates to a mirror on the first floor landing at the entrance to the Small Drawing Room at Berkeley Castle. Another closely related mirror is illustrated in G. Wills, English Looking Glasses, 1965, p. 76, pl. 26, at which time it was with Messrs. R.F.Lock, Ltd, 152 Brompton Road, London.
Lenygon, regarded in their day as a model for the modern 'interior decorator', had a number of important aristocratic and wealthy clients and patrons including the Duke of Devonshire, the Earl of Pembroke and W.H. Lever, later Lord Leverhulme, for whom they provided a complete decorating service and supplied antique and high quality copies of Georgian furniture and works of art. In the same period, the owner, Francis Lenygon published The Decoration of Furniture of English Mansions during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Although many of the illustrations in this publication were genuine pieces, others were almost certainly reproductions by the firm.
Keeble, established in 1899, offered a similar service, including the creation of period-style rooms in new buildings. The firm was employed in the 1920s by Randal, 8th Earl of Berkeley to completely refurbish Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire. Their remit was to restore the castle 'as far as possible to its original plan', primarily the installation of authentic medieval architectural masonry to replace later accretions, but also replacing much of the furniture at Berkeley, sourcing objects through antique dealers in England, France and Italy (James Miller, 'Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire II', Country Life, 9 December 2004, p. 57). The present lot relates to a mirror on the first floor landing at the entrance to the Small Drawing Room at Berkeley Castle. Another closely related mirror is illustrated in G. Wills, English Looking Glasses, 1965, p. 76, pl. 26, at which time it was with Messrs. R.F.Lock, Ltd, 152 Brompton Road, London.