A George II Giltwood Mirror attributed to Matthias Lock, Circa 1740

Clifford Wright, London

Elegance and Wonder: Masterpieces of European Art from the Jordan and Thomas A. Saunders III Collection, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, May 2022-October 2023

The designer and woodcarver Matthias Lock (c.1710-1765) was one of the most important practitioners of the Rococo style in mid-18th century England. He may have been born in Portsmouth, and is first recorded in London in 1734 on the occasion of his marriage to Mary Lee at St Paul's, Covent Garden. Biographical information and precise details of his commissions are limited, and he is best known for his volumes of engraved designs, which include Six Tables (1746), A Book of Ornaments (1747, later reissued as A Book of Shields); A New Drawing Book of Ornaments, Shields, Compartments, Masks, &c., and The Principles of Ornament, or the Youth's Guide to Drawing of Foliage (undated) and A New Book of Ornaments with Twelve Leaves Consisting of Chimneys, Sconces, Tables, Spandle Panels, Spring Clock Cases, Stands, a Chandelier and Girandole, etc. published in 1752 in collaboration with the engraver Henry Copland and regarded as the most important pattern book of the Rococo style to appear prior to Chippendale's Director (1754).