Lot 307
  • 307

A George III giltwood overmantel mirror

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Description

  • high 118cm., wide 146cm.; 3ft 10½in., 4ft. 9½in.
in Neo-Classical Sheraton style, the  central mirror plate within a mirrored border divided by palmettes, in a beaded giltwood frame, topped by a crest comprising a pineapple finial surmounting an urn above a medallion guarded by winged griffins trailing arabesques of acanthus leaves and wheat husks

Provenance

Fulbeck Hall, Lincolnshire.

It is possible that this overmantel mirror may have had an original provenance of Osterley Park, Middlesex, remodelled by Robert Adam. In 1782 Sarah Anne Child, daughter of Robert Child MP (d.1782) of Osterley Park, married John, 10th Earl of Westmorland (d.1841) of Apethorpe Hall, Northants. Apethorpe was sold by the Westmorlands in March 1904 and at the same time some of the contents of the house passed to their cousins, the Fanes of Fulbeck Hall.

Catalogue Note

The design of this mirror relates to a series of mirrors designed by Robert Adam for various houses including Osterley Park, elements of which can be seen in his drawing  for the pier glasses of Kenwood house, Middlesex, shown in plate VIII of Robert and James Adam's Works in Architecture, 1778.  A mirror which incorporates the central elements of Adam`s design is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum and is illustrated in Maurice Tomlin, The Victoria and Albert Museum, Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture, p. 105. Tablets containing a putto riding a lion can be found on chimney pieces supplied by Adam to Northumberland House and Derby House in London in 1773 and 1774 respectively.  Adam also supplied a related mirror topped by griffins flanking an elliptical tablet to Osterley in 1775.