A Pair of George II Giltwood and Gesso Girandoles, Circa 1755

The Collection of Theodore A. Cory and Winifred Cory née Graham (1873-1950), Hampton Court, London;

Private Collection, Palm Beach, Florida;

Christie's New York, 7 October 2022, lot 19;

Rolleston, London

These mirrors belonged to Theodore John Cory, the son of a mine-owner in Wales. Little information remains about Cory, who is somewhat overshadowed in the historical records by his famous wife: Winifred Graham, whom he married in 1906, was a famous novelist who wrote a prolific eighty-eight books during her lifetime. Several of these had a declared political stance, such as those written on the topics of Mormonism, Catholicism or women’s suffrage. The labels reading “Theodore J. Cory / Hampton Court” on the reverse of these mirrors confirm that they were with Cory during the time when the couple were living at Old Place, The Green, Hampton Court and before they moved to St Albans Bank in Hampton.¹

Cory’s collection is not well-documented, but there is a record of one of his purchases in the Clifton Society’s write-up of the sale of his late brother S. Campbell Cory’s effects in 1909: under the list of “other purchasers” at the end of the article, it is noted that Theodore Cory bought “'a gold-mounted tortoiseshell souvenir, presented by King Victor Emmanuel to the Comtesse de Castiglione, for 24 guineas”.² He was in good company: the “principal purchaser” of the sale was the prominent furniture dealer “Mr Mallett, of Bath”, while “Mr. Symonds (London)” was assumedly the eminent furniture historian Robert Wemyss Symonds.

¹ See the biographical entry for Winifred Graham at The Cory Archives, available at <https://corysociety.wordpress.com/cory-authors/> [accessed 23rd April 2024]

² Clifton Society, 2 December 1909, p.13. Available at The British Newspaper Archive, <https://britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0002164/19091202/056/0013?browse=true> [accessed 23rd April 2024]