.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The mirror is understood to have belonged to David Garrick (d.1779), the celebrated actor and theatre manager of Drury Lane, London, at his Thames-side villa in Hampton, Middlesex. In 1749, Garrick married the famous Viennese dancer, Eva Marie Veigel, whose reputation as 'an excellent appreciator of the fine arts’ undoubtedly prompted the decoration of two rooms at Hampton, one created in 1757 with Chinoiserie murals by Jean Pillement (d.1808), the other furnished with Thomas Chippendale’s remarkable suite of green and white-painted bedroom furniture in a Chinoiserie style, which was supplied between 1768 - 78.
The present mirror possibly originally accompanied this suite, which comprised a bed, clothes press, corner cabinet, a pair of bookcases, now in the Victoria & Albert museum (W.70-1916 and W.21 to 32-1917), and a dressing-table (now at Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire), in Garrick’s best bedroom at Hampton.
The inclusion of writhing serpents, emblematic of wisdom, was a recurring theme at Hampton, notably flanking the pierced mahogany trelliswork back of the 'Shakespeare chair' with its oval medallion depicting the writer's profile reputedly carved from timber taken from Shakespeare's mulberry tree that was felled at New Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, in 1756. The chair, which is full of literary allusions, and may have provided inspiration for the present mirror, was designed by William Hogarth (d. 1764) for his friend Garrick, who was President of the Shakespeare Society in this period. The chair was intended for what Horace Walpole (d.1797) described as Garrick’s 'Grateful Temple to Shakespeare’, a domed temple in the garden at Hampton that also displayed a statue of Shakespeare by Louis François Roubiliac (d.1762).
The oval mirror frame is characteristic of the work of Chippendale, and relates to a pair of oval frames in gilt carton-pierre that was supplied to Edward Lascelles for the Yellow Chintz Bedroom at Harewood House, Yorkshire in circa 1770 (C. Gilbert, The Life and Works of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, p. 174). Garrick was a long-term patron of Chippendale, certainly from 1768 and possibly earlier. Chippendale, Haig & Co furnished Adelphi Terrace in 1771 - 2 at a cost of some £931, and there were extensive purchases for the Hampton villa until 1778 (ibid. pp. 236 - 248).
Serpents also featured on an early 19th century dressing mirror probably acquired by Mrs. Garrick after her husband’s death for Hampton, and which was sold by Messrs. Rushworth, Jarvis & Abbot, 22-23 June 1864, lot 90 when the contents of the villa were sold. It was purchased at that time by H. E. Trevor, Esq., a direct descendent of Garrick and later acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, though its present whereabouts are unknown.
The present mirror possibly originally accompanied this suite, which comprised a bed, clothes press, corner cabinet, a pair of bookcases, now in the Victoria & Albert museum (W.70-1916 and W.21 to 32-1917), and a dressing-table (now at Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire), in Garrick’s best bedroom at Hampton.
The inclusion of writhing serpents, emblematic of wisdom, was a recurring theme at Hampton, notably flanking the pierced mahogany trelliswork back of the 'Shakespeare chair' with its oval medallion depicting the writer's profile reputedly carved from timber taken from Shakespeare's mulberry tree that was felled at New Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, in 1756. The chair, which is full of literary allusions, and may have provided inspiration for the present mirror, was designed by William Hogarth (d. 1764) for his friend Garrick, who was President of the Shakespeare Society in this period. The chair was intended for what Horace Walpole (d.1797) described as Garrick’s 'Grateful Temple to Shakespeare’, a domed temple in the garden at Hampton that also displayed a statue of Shakespeare by Louis François Roubiliac (d.1762).
The oval mirror frame is characteristic of the work of Chippendale, and relates to a pair of oval frames in gilt carton-pierre that was supplied to Edward Lascelles for the Yellow Chintz Bedroom at Harewood House, Yorkshire in circa 1770 (C. Gilbert, The Life and Works of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, p. 174). Garrick was a long-term patron of Chippendale, certainly from 1768 and possibly earlier. Chippendale, Haig & Co furnished Adelphi Terrace in 1771 - 2 at a cost of some £931, and there were extensive purchases for the Hampton villa until 1778 (ibid. pp. 236 - 248).
Serpents also featured on an early 19th century dressing mirror probably acquired by Mrs. Garrick after her husband’s death for Hampton, and which was sold by Messrs. Rushworth, Jarvis & Abbot, 22-23 June 1864, lot 90 when the contents of the villa were sold. It was purchased at that time by H. E. Trevor, Esq., a direct descendent of Garrick and later acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, though its present whereabouts are unknown.