A PAIR OF GEORGE III GILTWOOD MIRRORS , English, circa 1765
Height: 6 ft 10 ½ in; 209.5 cm
Width: 3 ft 8 ½ in; 113 cm
Width: 3 ft 8 ½ in; 113 cm
4420911
£100,000 +
Further images
Note: The frames have been re-gilded. The frames retain virtually all their original mirror plates. Only a few border glasses are 18th century mercury silvered glass replacements. The mirrors have...
Note: The frames have been re-gilded. The frames retain virtually all their original mirror plates. Only a few border glasses are 18th century mercury silvered glass replacements.
The mirrors have the charming and unusual feature of a carved bird in the centre of the dividing fillet of the glass plates. Similar mirrors, probably from the same workshop, were formerly in the collection of the late Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother. A single mirror in the collection of the Bank of England features a virtually identical bird on the dividing fillet, and this mirror is also attributable to the Linnell workshop.
A closely related drawing by John Linnell for our mirror is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Literature
R. A. Woods, FSA, ‘English Furniture in the Bank of England’, 1972, illus. 62; a similar use of a carved bird on a dividing fillet.
H. Hayward and P. Kirkham, ‘William and John Linnell, Eighteenth Century London Furniture Makers’, 1980, Vol II, p. 98, plate 187; a drawing showing elements used in the current pair of mirrors.
D. Coombs, ‘Queen Elizabeth's Collection’, The Antique Collector, 1990, August, p. 34.
