LATE 18TH CENTURY

Details

A CHINESE EXPORT GILTWOOD AND BLACK AND GILT-JAPANNED GIRANDOLE
LATE 18TH CENTURY
The oval plate with japanned roundels, the apron with scrolling acanthus centred by a japanned panel, with paper label 'X.1114 oval lacquer toilet mirror', the original backboard ebonised and painted with gilt scrolling foliage, re-gilt, with traces of an earlier layer of gilding
37 x 19 in. (94 x 48 cm.)

Provenance

William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (d. 1925), bought from M Harris & Sons, 5 May 1916.
Christie's, South Kensington, Avon Antiques, 'A West Country Tradition,' 21 May 2009, lot 184.

Special notice

Specified lots (sold and unsold) marked with a filled square not collected from Christie’s by 5.00 pm on the day of the sale will, at our option, be removed to Cadogan Tate. Christie’s will inform you if the lot has been sent offsite. Our removal and storage of the lot is subject to the terms and conditions of storage which can be found at Christies.com/storage. Please call Christie’s Client Service 24 hours in advance to book a collection time at Cadogan Tate Ltd. All collections will be by pre-booked appointment only. Tel: +44 (0)20 7839 9060 Email: cscollectionsuk@christies.com. If the lot remains at Christie’s it will be available for collection on any working day 9.00 am to 5.00 pm. Lots are not available for collection at weekends.

Brought to you by

Toby Woolley

twoolley@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2227

Lot Essay

The mirror corresponds to a surviving 1773 design by the Berkeley Square cabinet-maker John Linnell (d.1796) for a Mr Price, and which featured a similarly framed oval girandole overmantel mirror crowned by a laurel-festooned sacred urn (see H Hayward, 'The Drawings of John Linnell in the Victoria & Albert Museum,' Furniture History, 1969 fig. 57.). Export wares frequently followed closely published source material, and the elaborate girandole offered here shares its oval form with other Chinese lacquer dressing-mirrors that were intended for export to the West (see Carl L. Crossman, The Decorative Arts of the China Trade, Woodbridge, 1991, p. 284, pl. 162 and 163).
The inventory label indicates that the mirror was acquired by the connoisseur William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (d.1925) from M Harris & Sons on the 5 May 1916.

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