.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
THE DESIGN AND ICONOGRAPHY
Designed in the George II French 'picturesque' fashion, the mirror's serpentined form accords with the 'line of beauty' discussed in the artist William Hogarth's Analysis of Beauty (1753); and illustrated in Thomas Chippendale's Director (1754). Chippendale's frames, like the present one, featured mirrored compartments that helped aggrandise early 18th Century window-pier glasses; while his 'Modern' ornament harmonised with that of contemporary 'natural' or 'Arcadian' parks seen through windows.
The tapering herm busts represent the nymph Syrinx and her satyr companion, Pan, educator of Bacchus and ruler of the poets' Arcadian paradise. The figures transform into sacred reeds as related in Ovid's Metamorphoses or Loves of the Gods. Syrinx wears a foliate headdress in the French 'chinois' fashion in keeping with the pagoda-shaped pediment. The central scallop shell recalls Venus' water-birth in which it served as her triumphal chariot harnassed to dolphins. The head of Syrinx's river-god father, borne by love's wings, issues from the mirror's reeded base. The pattern derives in part from contemporary French prints engraved by Jacques-Gabriel Huquier (d.1772) after Jacques de Lajoue (d.1761), published in Livres de Bordures d'écrans à la Chinois (1737). Related chinois top-knots also appear in George Bickham the Elder's etchings for his New Book of Ornaments for Glasses, Tables, Chairs, Sconces etc with Trophies in ye Chinese way, Drawn for the use of Artificers in General by the Babel of Paris (1752).
MATTHIAS LOCK
In 1744, Matthias Lock (d.1765) was described as 'the famous Matthias Lock, the most excellent carver', and reputed to be 'the best Ornament draughts-man in Europe'. During the 1740s, he was also employed by James Whittle (d.1759), 'Carver' to Frederick , Prince of Wales (d.1752), while his own workshop is recorded as being occupied by 'upwards of thirty men' (Thomas Johnson, The Life of the Author [1744], quoted in J. Simon, Furniture History, 2003, pp. 1-64). The specialist carver, Lock, illustrated a satyr-hermed mirror with chinoiserie top-knot together with a winged river-god in circa 1760 (P. Ward-Jackson, English Furniture Designs of the Eighteenth Century, London, 1958, fig. 66). He also published similar herms in his New Book of Ornaments for Looking Glass Frames (1752) (pl.3), and included more on his contemporary 'Large Sconce' designed for John, 2nd Earl Poulett's tapestry room at Hinton House, Hinton St George, Somerset (J. Hayward, 'Furniture designed and carved by Matthias Lock at Hinton House, Somerset, Connoisseur, CXLVI, December 1980, pp. 284-286; M. Snodin, Rococo, Art and Design in Hogarth's England, London, 1984, L12).
Lock's colleague, James Hill (d.1754), signed his name on another of Lock's related pier-glasses, a pairof similarly patterned mirrors at Ramsbury, Wiltshire (A. Bowett, Furniture History Society Newsletter, No. 153, February 2004, fig 1; R. Edwards and P. Macquoid, The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev. ed., 1954, vol. II, p. 339, fig.72).
The mirror offered here was purchased in 1959 by the author Roald Dahl from the Uxbridge dealer W.H.Ferry for the price of £135. In the course of subsequent correspondence between the two men in 1976, Dahl recalled some of the items he had purchased from Ferry, singling out the 'huge 18th Century English grotto mirror with dolphins and men's faces' and relating how it cleaned up to reveal the 'original' paint.
A virtually identical mirror, probably the pair to the present lot with reversed Syrinx and Pan herms, was sold anonymously Christie's, London, 20 November 2008, lot 550 (£169,250 including premium).
Designed in the George II French 'picturesque' fashion, the mirror's serpentined form accords with the 'line of beauty' discussed in the artist William Hogarth's Analysis of Beauty (1753); and illustrated in Thomas Chippendale's Director (1754). Chippendale's frames, like the present one, featured mirrored compartments that helped aggrandise early 18th Century window-pier glasses; while his 'Modern' ornament harmonised with that of contemporary 'natural' or 'Arcadian' parks seen through windows.
The tapering herm busts represent the nymph Syrinx and her satyr companion, Pan, educator of Bacchus and ruler of the poets' Arcadian paradise. The figures transform into sacred reeds as related in Ovid's Metamorphoses or Loves of the Gods. Syrinx wears a foliate headdress in the French 'chinois' fashion in keeping with the pagoda-shaped pediment. The central scallop shell recalls Venus' water-birth in which it served as her triumphal chariot harnassed to dolphins. The head of Syrinx's river-god father, borne by love's wings, issues from the mirror's reeded base. The pattern derives in part from contemporary French prints engraved by Jacques-Gabriel Huquier (d.1772) after Jacques de Lajoue (d.1761), published in Livres de Bordures d'écrans à la Chinois (1737). Related chinois top-knots also appear in George Bickham the Elder's etchings for his New Book of Ornaments for Glasses, Tables, Chairs, Sconces etc with Trophies in ye Chinese way, Drawn for the use of Artificers in General by the Babel of Paris (1752).
MATTHIAS LOCK
In 1744, Matthias Lock (d.1765) was described as 'the famous Matthias Lock, the most excellent carver', and reputed to be 'the best Ornament draughts-man in Europe'. During the 1740s, he was also employed by James Whittle (d.1759), 'Carver' to Frederick , Prince of Wales (d.1752), while his own workshop is recorded as being occupied by 'upwards of thirty men' (Thomas Johnson, The Life of the Author [1744], quoted in J. Simon, Furniture History, 2003, pp. 1-64). The specialist carver, Lock, illustrated a satyr-hermed mirror with chinoiserie top-knot together with a winged river-god in circa 1760 (P. Ward-Jackson, English Furniture Designs of the Eighteenth Century, London, 1958, fig. 66). He also published similar herms in his New Book of Ornaments for Looking Glass Frames (1752) (pl.3), and included more on his contemporary 'Large Sconce' designed for John, 2nd Earl Poulett's tapestry room at Hinton House, Hinton St George, Somerset (J. Hayward, 'Furniture designed and carved by Matthias Lock at Hinton House, Somerset, Connoisseur, CXLVI, December 1980, pp. 284-286; M. Snodin, Rococo, Art and Design in Hogarth's England, London, 1984, L12).
Lock's colleague, James Hill (d.1754), signed his name on another of Lock's related pier-glasses, a pairof similarly patterned mirrors at Ramsbury, Wiltshire (A. Bowett, Furniture History Society Newsletter, No. 153, February 2004, fig 1; R. Edwards and P. Macquoid, The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev. ed., 1954, vol. II, p. 339, fig.72).
The mirror offered here was purchased in 1959 by the author Roald Dahl from the Uxbridge dealer W.H.Ferry for the price of £135. In the course of subsequent correspondence between the two men in 1976, Dahl recalled some of the items he had purchased from Ferry, singling out the 'huge 18th Century English grotto mirror with dolphins and men's faces' and relating how it cleaned up to reveal the 'original' paint.
A virtually identical mirror, probably the pair to the present lot with reversed Syrinx and Pan herms, was sold anonymously Christie's, London, 20 November 2008, lot 550 (£169,250 including premium).