An Important Federal Giltwood and Eglomise Paneled Looking Glass with Eagle, New York, 1805

William Wilson Wood, III, Piqua, Ohio and Kittery Point, Maine (A prominent early American furniture and glass collector, see Parke-Bernet Galleries Inc., Early American Glass: The Important Collection of William W. Wood, 3d, January 22 and 23, 1942 for additional information on William W. Wood.);
Aileen Van Bibber Boal Wood;
Thus by descent to the current owner

Secondary wood is white pine. One back board loose, proper right corinthian capital with loss. Small eglomite panel cracked, tail of eagle cracked and reglued. Losses to guilding, mirror plate possibly restored.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Pillar or pillared looking glasses as they were contemporarily called with their mirror glass plate framed at the top by a painted panel with a projecting cornice, on the sides by pilasters with Corinthian capitals, and on their bottom by a narrow molding with projecting corners beneath the pilasters embodied the architectural qualities praised by contemporary designers.  The reverse-painted glass panels were equated with the frieze of classical entablature.¹

This outstanding example has an exquisitely rendered upright eagle holding a garland with balls that gracefully descend to flanking urns.  Several related looking glasses are known.  One example was once owned by Katrina Kipper and another is in the collection of Winterthur Museum.²  The other remarkable survivor is the oversize eglomise panel with an idealized romantic theme of buildings, a stream and an ancient tree.  A mirror with a very closely related painted scene was illustrated by Lockwood.³

¹ David L. Barquist, American Tables and Looking Glasses in the Mabel Brady Garvan Collection and Other Collections at Yale University, (New Haven, CT: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), pp. 323-5 and David L. Barquist, "American looking glasses in the neoclassical style, 178-1815," The Magazine Antiques, vol. 141, no. 2(February 1992) 320-331.
² Wallace Nutting, Furniture Treasury, (New York: The MacMillan Co., 1954), no 3037 and Joseph Downs, American Furniture: The Federal Period, (New York: Viking Press, 1966), no. 237, pp. 278.  Another closely related mirror was sold at Christie's New York, Important American Furniture, Silver, Prints, Folk Art and Decorative Arts, January 21, 2000, sale no. 9314, lot 154.
³ Luke Vincent Lockwood, Colonial Furniture in America, (New York: Castle Books, 1957), fig. LXXIII, p. 397-8.