A GEORGE III GILTWOOD MIRROR

The chivalric plume of ‘three-ribboned feathers’ adopted in 1780 by George, Prince of Wales (later George IV), was popularised in 1788 as an ornamental patriotic motif through Messrs A. Hepplewhite & Co.’s pattern-book entitled, The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide, whose publication coincided with a time that the Prince was expected to act as Regent during his father’s temporary illness. The Prince’s badge featured at this period on the furnishings of his apartments at the Queen’s House, St. James’s (now Buckingham Palace). They appear, for instance, on the Prince's torcheres invoiced in January 1782 by the St. Martin’s Lane cabinet-maker William Gates (d. circa 1800), a pair of which was sold by the Richard Ormonde Shuttleworth Charitable Trust, removed from Old Warden Park, Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, Christie's, London, 8 July 1993 lot 50 (£144,500).