A George III Giltwood Overmantel Mirror with a Reverse Mirror Panel, Circa 1765

Dr Arthur J. and Margaret M. Mourot, Alexandria, Virginia

Christie's New York, 21 January 1999, lot 557

Hyde Park Antiques, New York, acquired at the January 2001 Winter Antiques Show, Park Avenue Armory, New York

With its pagoda cresting and seated Chinese figures at the lower corners, this imposing overmantel relates to a group of similar mirrors by or attributed to the Berkeley Square firm of William and John Linnell. The most important of these is the overmantel supplied in 1754 to the 4th Duke and Duchess of Beaufort for the Chinese Bedroom at Badminton House, Gloucestershire, part of a suite of japanned furniture including a state bed (now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London), commode, two pairs of shelves and eight armchairs. The entire bedroom suite was sold in 1921 and the mirror later entered the collection of the socialite and philanthropist Doris Duke (d.1993; sold Christie's New York, 3 June 2004, lot 442; $1,575,000). Although no specific drawings for the Badminton mirror have survived, several ornamental motifs like Chinese figures holding parasols, bridges, staircases and trailing foliage appear in designs for pier glasses and girandoles by John Linnell now in the Victoria & Albert Museum (illustrated in Helena Hayward and Pat Kirkham, William and John Linnell, 1980, vol. II, p.82-83 figs. 159 and 161 and p. 94, fig. 181).

An extremely similar overmantel was formerly in Untermyer Collection, Metropolitan Museum, New York, deaccessioned and sold Christie's New York, 11 December 2014, lot 3 ($509,000). Further analagous overmantels attributed to the Linnells include one from the collection of Archibald Stirling of Keir at Keir Mains, Dunblane, Perthshire, sold Christie's London, 8 July 2010, lot 124 (£199,250); another previously with the Marquesses of Bath and later in the collection of Ronald and Marietta Tree at Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire, sold Christie's New York, 21 October 2010, lot 347 ($458,000); a further example illustrated in Graham Child, World Mirrors (London 1990), fig.154 p.108 and 117), and finally an overmantel in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (W.65-1938), exhibited adjacent to the Badminton House Bed.

The inclusion of a Chinese Export reverse-mirror panel is extremely rare, and only a few other examples of overmantels with mirror pictures are recorded, among them one previously with Moss Harris (illustrated M. Harris & Sons, A Catalogue and Index of Old Furniture and Decorative Works of Art, London 1938, Vol. II, p.269), sold Sotheby's New York, 17 October 2022, lot 27, and another from Newstead Abbey and also previously with Moss Harris and subsequently with the Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, sold Christie's New York, The Collection of Pierre Durand, 27 January 2022, lot 69 ($600,000).

The carver and cabinetmaker William Linnell (1703-1763) acquired premises at 28 Berkeley Square with his son John (1729-1796) in 1754 and quickly became one of the most important furniture manufacturers in London in the third quarter of the eighteenth century, and in addition to the Duke of Beaufort their clients included Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Baron Scarsdale at Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire; William Drake at Shardeloes, Buckinghamshire and Robert Child at Osterley Park.

The previous private owners of this overmantel, Dr Arthur J. and Margaret M. Mourot of Alexandria, Virginia, formed an important collection of 18th-century Meissen porcelain which they gifted to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond in 1974.