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Lot Essay
The golden sphere-mirrored sconces are surmounted by seahorses or hippocampi, described in Homer's Iliad as the creatures that drew Poseidon's chariot over the sea. Such mirrored girandoles were first promoted in Thomas Sheraton's Cabinet Dictionary, 1803, which stated `the perspective of the room in which they are suspended.... produces an agreeable effect'. and later in George Smith's Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1808.
The present and the following pairs of mirrors were most probably commissioned for Cullen House, Banffshire, by Sir Lewis Grant, 5th Earl of Seafield who succeeded his cousin in 1811. Sir Lewis never married and while no major work was carried out on Seafield house during his tenure, his brother Francis William Grant, later 6th Earl (d.1853) employed the architect William Robinson between 1822 to 1830 on several public and domestic buildings, including the Temple of Pomona and a Tea-room at Cullen House, so it is possible that the girandoles were supplied originally as part of this work.
The present and the following pairs of mirrors were most probably commissioned for Cullen House, Banffshire, by Sir Lewis Grant, 5th Earl of Seafield who succeeded his cousin in 1811. Sir Lewis never married and while no major work was carried out on Seafield house during his tenure, his brother Francis William Grant, later 6th Earl (d.1853) employed the architect William Robinson between 1822 to 1830 on several public and domestic buildings, including the Temple of Pomona and a Tea-room at Cullen House, so it is possible that the girandoles were supplied originally as part of this work.