Lot Essay
The form and ornamentation of this delicately carved rococo pier glass in the ‘French’ or ‘Modern’ style is derived from a number of sources including Lock & Copeland’s A New Book of Ornaments (1752), Chippendale’s Director (1754, 55 and 62), and Thomas Johnson’s One Hundred & Fifty New Designs (1761). The ornately carved flower-filled panier recalls the oeuvre of father and son, William (d. 1763) and John Linnell (d. 1796), in particular a design for a pier-glass, circa 1755-60, for a pair of pier mirrors commissioned by Sir Monoux Cope, 7th Baronet, for Bramshill, Hampshire, and an overmantel mirror supplied to George William Coventry, 6th Earl of Coventry for Croome Court, sold ‘Mount Congreve’, Christie’s, 23 May 2012, lot 100 (H. Hayward, P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, London, 1980, p. 98, fig. 188; V E.205 1929).