A GEORGE II GILTWOOD PIER MIRROR

CIRCA 1730 - 40

Details

A GEORGE II GILTWOOD PIER MIRROR
CIRCA 1730 - 40
The rectangular bevelled plate within a gadrooned edge and egg-and-dart border, surmounted by a floral-carved broken pediment centred by a foliate cartouche, the punched apron decorated with foliate scrolls and centred by a lion's mask, refreshments to gilding, the plate probably original and resilvered
61½ x 29½ in. (156 x 75 cm.)

Provenance

Almost certainly acquired by the Very Rev. Oswin Harvard Gibbs-Smith (d.1969), Archdeacon of London and Canon Residentiary of St Pauls, 1947 - 1961, for the Chapter House, St. Paul's Cathedral.

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Celia Harvey

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Lot Essay

The Chapter House was designed and built between 1712 and 1715 by Sir Christopher Wren (d.1723) and his son as the last part of their commission for St. Paul's Cathedral. Formerly the meeting place of the full Chapter of the Cathedral, comprising the Dean of St. Paul's, the Residentiary Canons and the Prebebendaries it also provided accommodation for the Archdeacon. The mirror was almost certainly introduced in the early 1950s when the Chapter House was undergoing repair and refurbishment having been bombed in the Second World War. Although research to date cannot corroborate the following, Oswin was the older brother of Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith (d.1981), Assistant Keeper, Victoria and Albert Museum from 1932-39, and Keeper Emeritus from 1971, and Charles almost certainly assisted his brother, Oswin, on the Chapter House refurbishment in the 1950s.

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