A PAIR OF GEORGE III GILT CARTON PIERRE OVAL MIRRORS
A PAIR OF GEORGE III GILT CARTON PIERRE OVAL MIRRORS
A PAIR OF GEORGE III GILT CARTON PIERRE OVAL MIRRORS
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A PAIR OF GEORGE III GILT CARTON PIERRE OVAL MIRRORS
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Specified lots are being stored at Crozier Park Ro… Read more
A PAIR OF GEORGE III GILT CARTON PIERRE OVAL MIRRORS

CIRCA 1765

Details
A PAIR OF GEORGE III GILT CARTON PIERRE OVAL MIRRORS
CIRCA 1765
Each oval plate within a gadrooned frame and surrounded by foliate and rocaille C-scrolls, surmounted by a basket of flowers, one plate apparently original, one replaced, with A.H. Tripp & Son depository label inscribed 'Howard-Vyse'
62 ½ x 35 in. (159 x 89 cm.)
Provenance
Almost certainly supplied to Field Marshal Sir George Howard, after 1764, for Stoke Place, Buckinghamshire and by descent to
The Howard-Vyse family, at Stoke Place until 1963, and by descent until sold
Christie's, London, 8 June 2006, lot 31.
Special notice
Specified lots are being stored at Crozier Park Royal (details below) or will be removed from Christie’s, 8 King Street, London, SW1Y 6QT by 5.00pm on the day of the sale. Christie’s will inform you if the lot has been sent offsite. If the lot has been transferred to Crozier Park Royal, it will be available for collection from 12.00pm on the second business day following the sale. Please call Christie’s Client Service 24 hours in advance to book a collection time at Crozier Park Royal. All collections from Crozier Park Royal will be by pre-booked appointment only. Tel: +44 (0)20 7839 9060 Email: cscollectionsuk@christies.com. If the lot remains at Christie’s, 8 King Street, it will be available for collection on any working day (not weekends) from 9.00am to 5.00pm Cancellation under the EU Consumer Rights Directive may apply to this lot. Please see here for further information.

Brought to you by

Amelia Walker
Amelia Walker Director, Specialist Head of Private & Iconic Collections

Lot Essay


These 'picturesque' Roman-medallion pier-glasses with airy golden frames executed in French-fashioned 'carton pierre' are likely to have been designed en suite with a pair of abundantly flowered pier-tables (sold Christie’s, London, 8 June 2006, lot 30). Their 'Pan' reed-gadrooned frames are wreathed by water-dripping and reed-scrolled pilasters, whose rustic arched pediments are crowned with flower-baskets evoking Arcadian festivities. Such furniture, appropriate for the pier of a garden salon, is likely to have formed part of the aggrandisement of Stoke Place, Buckinghamshire carried out by Field Marshal Sir George Howard following his purchase of the mansion in 1764 with the assistance of the fashionable architect Stiff Leadbetter (d. 1766). Leadbetter, who had trained as a carpenter builder and held the appointment of Surveyor of St. Paul's Cathedral, was already at the time in the employment of Thomas Penn at neighbouring Stoke Park.
A related 'Oval Glass Frame' pattern, with reed-gadrooned border, and another crowned by a basket, were published in W. Ince and J. Mayhew's, Universal System of Household Furniture, 1762 (pls. 78 and 79). Their patterns also relate to those previously issued by Thomas Johnson (1723-99), the Rococo carver and designer who in 1758 published his Designs for Picture-frames, Candelabra, Chimney pieces, etc., with a frontispiece dedicated to Lord Blakeney, Grand President of the Antigallican Association, who opposed ‘the insidious arts from the French Nation’, and included a winged cherub setting fire to a scroll entitled ‘French Paper Machee’ (P. Kirkham, ‘The London Furniture Trade 1700-1870’, Furniture History, 1988, Chapter IX, p. 9; E.3716-1903). Carton pierre was initially seen as a great threat to the professional carver and was associated with French émigré craftsmen like the Berwick Street carver, gilder and papier-mâché maker, William Duffour (fl. c. 1749–84), son of Joseph Duffour, who in 1749 was famous for his ‘paper ornaments like stucco’, and claimed to be the original maker of papier-mâché; he may have executed a pier-glass to an Adam design, acquired in 1926 by the Victoria & Albert Museum (ibid.; W.25-1926). However, by the mid-18th century, the use of carton pierre was, as the architect Isaac Ware (1704-66) grudgingly acknowledged, ‘all the rage of fashion’, and went hand-in-hand with carving (‘Mirrors of the Late 18th Century’, Country Life, 9 October 1926, p. 558). John Linnell, renowned for his high quality carving (see lot 51), had a few carton pierre items such as gilt ornaments for a bed and a set of bed cornices in stock in 1763 (Kirkham, op. cit., p. 118). Similarly, Thomas Chippendale (1718-79) bought carton pierre room borders, and in 1763 the Royal cabinet-maker William Vile (1700-67) supplied ‘A neat oval glass in a ‘Papier Machie’ frame, painted white’ (ibid.; Country Life, op. cit.).

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