Royal and Noble

Royal and Noble

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 145. A GERMAN ETCHED GLASS PIER MIRROR, ATTRIBUTED TO SPIEGELMANUFAKTUR LOHR AM MAIN, CIRCA 1721.

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN COLLECTION

A GERMAN ETCHED GLASS PIER MIRROR, ATTRIBUTED TO SPIEGELMANUFAKTUR LOHR AM MAIN, CIRCA 1721

Auction Closed

January 21, 06:17 PM GMT

Estimate

80,000 - 120,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN COLLECTION


A GERMAN ETCHED GLASS PIER MIRROR, ATTRIBUTED TO SPIEGELMANUFAKTUR LOHR AM MAIN, CIRCA 1721


with a plumed scrolling cresting etched with arabesques, canons and centred by a mask above the arms of Jean-Philippe-Eugène, Comte de Mérode, above a later rectangular bevelled mirror plate within wide mirrored frame etched and cut with spherules and foliage, inset with panels of knights in armour, equestrian battles and allegories of war and peace, the military flags inscribed with the initials C VI for Charles VI, the reverse inscribed in yellow chalk 1201 and an old paper label inscribed 3134, some replacements to plates

336.5cm. high, 154 cm. wide; 11ft., 5ft.½in.

Jean-Philippe-Eugène, Comte de Mérode, 5th Marquess of Westerloo (1674-1732);

Hannah de Rothschild and Earl of Rosebery, Mentmore;

Sotheby's London, 18-20 May 1977, lot 837;

with Mallett, London, in 1988;

Mona Ackerman;

Sold Christie's New York, The Exceptional Sale, 11 December 2014, lot 42;

then acquired by the current owner.

L. Synge, Mallett's Great English Furniture, London, 1991, p. 198.

Mentmore, Edinburgh [privately printed], 1884, Vol. II, p. 62.

González-Palacios, A. ed. The Adjectives of History: Furniture and Works of Art 1550-1870, exh.cat., Colnaghi, London, p.21, no.10.


COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

W. Loibl, Die kurmainzische Spiegelmanufaktur Lohr am Main (1698-1806), 2012.  

The present lot presents all the hallmarks of the celebrated Bavarian glass manufacture specialized in the production of engraved and etched glass mirrors. The impressive scale of this mirror incorporating meticulously etched scenes testify to the skills reached by the manufacture’s craftsmen at Lohr am Main whose know-how dominated the field of glassmaking in Europe at the time.


The Spiegelmanufaktur (1698-1806) in Lohr am Main


Lohr am Main in Bavaria is located near one of Europe’s most famous forests, the Spessart Forest. Since trees played an important in the process of glassmaking, the proximity of the forest benefited in the end of the 17th century the emergence of the reputed glass manufacture, Spiegelmanufaktur officially founded in 1698 by Lothar Franz von Schönborn-Buchheim (1655 - 1729), the Archbishop-Elector of Mainz between 1694 and 1729 and Bishop of Bamberg between 1693 and 1729.


His aspirations were already set by his predecessor Anselm Franz von Ingelheim (1679 - 1695), who saw the French innovations in glass making and mirror casting as an opportunity. He determined that foreign glassmakers should take advantage of the vast woodlands of the Spessart and so, from the 1690s, a group of French glass specialists such as Pierre Bernard and Louis Trouffé under the direction of Georg Wilhelm Brument settled.


Of unprecedented quality, the mirrors quickly caught the attention of aristocracy as commissions flew from all corners of Europe including a suite of furniture and a mirror with arabesque engraving for Schloss Wiesentheid and a mirror with similar cresting for Schloss Pommersfelden (see H. Kreisel, Kunst des Deutschen Möbels, Vol II, Munich, 1970, figs. 164-169 and 215). Another mirror from Lohr with similar volutes around the crest is illustrated in Kreisel, op. cit., fig. 213.


Jean-Philippe-Eugène, Comte de Mérode, 5th Marquess of Westerloo (1674-1732)


The comte de Mérode was a Belgian soldier whose military career started at the battle of Steenkerque on 3 August 1692. From the end of the 17th century and in the early 18th century, he fought in many battles and switched sides between consecutive wars, representing the anti-French coalition under King William III of England and King Charles II of Spain and later fighting under Felipe V on the side of the Bourbons in the battles of Luzara (1702), Ekeren (1703), Hochsted (1703-04) and Blenheim (1704). In 1694, he was prestigiously made Knight in the Order of the Golden Fleece. After Blenheim where he nearly escaped death, he retired in the Netherlands at his castles in Westerlo, Pietersheim and Mérode, where his art collection began to grow even more. Then he also served the Austrian Emperors Joseph I and Charles VI. He was appointed colonel of a dragoon regiment, later named Dragons de la Tour. In 1709 he was then made Grandee of Spain, and Field Marshal of the Holy Roman Empire in 1717. He also became captain of the emperor's guard and vice-president of the Hofkriegsrat.


This mirror dates back to Mérode’s marriage to Charlotte Eleonora Wilhelmina Amelia of Nassau-Hadanar in 1721, as it clearly features their two coat of arms joined in the chain of the Order of the Golden Fleece, flanked by rampant griffins and surrounded by weapons and trophies of war. It is possible Mérode commissioned the mirror to commemorate their wedding. The initials of Charles VI featured in the decoration of the mirror, highlight the importance of his service under the Holy Roman Emperor in his career.


Mentmore, Buckinghamshire


It is not known when the mirror exactly entered the collections of Mentmore, also known as “Mentmore Towers”, the English country house built between 1852 and 1854 for the Rothschild family. Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild (1818-1874) commissioned in 1850 Joseph Paxton, celebrated for his design of the Crystal Palace, and his son-in-law George Stokes to build him a house in the Jacobean style. After Mayer’s death, the mirror stayed at Mentmore with his only child Hannah (1851-1890) and her husband Archibald Philip, 5th Earl of Rosebery. According to the printed inventory of Mentmore of 1884, it is recorded as hanging in the library. The mirror was subsequently located in the Du Barry room, as recorded in an image dated January 1975 in the archives of English Heritage and remained there until 1977 when the contents of the residence were put on the market with Sotheby’s. Acquired by the renowned gallery Mallet, the mirror then stood prominently in the living room of Mona Ackerman’s apartment at 1020 Fifth Avenue, New York.