VENICE, THE GLASS POSSIBLY BY THE MURANO WORKSHOPS, LATE 17TH/EARLY 18TH CENTURY

Displayed by Mrs. Getty in her bathroom as the middle one of three similar richly-decorated mirrors stacked on top one another to create a dazzling effect reminiscent of a mirror cabinet, this lot is similar to lot 414 in this sale (see note). This mirror, with its particularly illustrious provenance, epitomizes the opulence of the “goût Rothschild” and formed part of the legendary collection at Mentmore Towers. Located in Buckinghamshire, Mentmore was built in the neo-Renaissance style between 1852 and 1854 by Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild (1818-1874). The fourth and youngest son of Nathan Mayer Rothschild, Baron Mayer founded N. M. Rothschild & Sons, the English branch of the renowned Rothschild banking empire. The plans for the mansion, which imitated the celebrated Elizabethan prodigy house Wollaton Hall in Nottinghamshire, were drawn up by the architect, Joseph Paxton (d.1865), creator of the Crystal Palace completed a year earlier. In keeping with the renown and regal aesthetic of Rothschild taste, the rooms were outfitted in a harmonious mélange of styles, incorporating extraordinary works of art in every field, see J. Fleming, 'Art Dealing in the Risorgimento II', The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 121, No. 917, August 1979, p. 505. Although stylistically different from the Renaissance exterior of the house, the Getty mirror would have been a perfect addition to any of the home’s interiors, where the mixing of styles was achieved with great success. The art collections at Mentmore were among the most outstanding of their kind anywhere in the world, prompting Lady Eastlake to comment: 'I do not believe that the Medici were ever so lodged at the height of their glory'. The 1977 auction was memorable and was considered "the sale of the century." It was punctuated by the best of European arts, and lots by the greatest masters of painting and decorative such as Boucher, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Riesener, Cressent, Oeben and Bernard van Riesenburgh were offered for sale. This landmark auction was attended by Mrs. Getty in person.
‌With its frame richly encrusted with glass ornaments, this mirror is not only an extravagantly luxurious piece of furnishing but also a testament to the imagination and exceptional capabilities of Venetian glass and mirror makers of the Baroque era. During the second half of the seventeenth and first half of the eighteenth centuries Venice was the unchallenged center of Italian mirror making and glass blowing. In this mirror the products of these two crafts are combined to create a work that was unrivaled not only on the Italian peninsula but in the whole of Europe. Mirrors produced in Venice in the late 1600s and the 1700s were set in a variety of frames decorated in the most imaginative ways, including gilding or gilding a mecca, veneering with etched glass, painting, lacquering, covering in lacca povera or, as in this case, embellishing with precious clear and colored cut glass. Here, the gilt metal frame adds additional brilliance and opulence to the mirror. Mirrors of this type were manufactured in various shapes but octagonal ones appear to have been the most fashionable. For a pair of very similar colored glass-mounted and gilt metal octagonal mirrors in the Museo Poldi Pezzoli, see Musei e Gallerie di Milano, Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Ceramiche-Vetri, Mobili e Arredi, Milan, 1983, p. 358, figs. 36-27.