A GILTWOOD MIRROR

OF GEORGE II STYLE, ORIGINALLY A PICTURE FRAME

Details

A GILTWOOD MIRROR
Of George II style, originally a picture frame
The later rectangular plate in a rosette moulded slip and a frame headed by a scrolled broken cornice enriched with acanthus and lambrequins and centred by a satyr mask with feathered crown, the sides with laurel, the base with flowerhead-filled geometric trellis, traces of earlier gilding
40 in. x 36 in. (103 cm. x 93 cm.)

Lot Essay

The frame with its scrolled pediment, scrolled trusses and flowered fibbon-fret relates to the Palladian or Roman fashion illustrated in E. Hoppus, The Gentleman and Builder's Repository, 1737, while its scalloped enrichments relate to the picturesque fashion of the 1740s. The satyr-mask wears a jewelled feather head-dress in the fashion associated with Frederick, Prince of Wales, while the acanthus-scrolled trusses are enriched with triumphal laurels and Scottish thistles. In 1759 William Mathie incorporated thistles on mirrors provided for Dumfries House alluding to the Order of the Thistle granted to the Earl of Bute (see F. Bamford, A Dictionary of Edinburgh Furniture Makers, 1660-1840, Leeds, 1983, pls. 14 and 16).

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