A GILTWOOD OVERMANTEL MIRROR

The serpentine frame, with its Roman acanthus ornament and sheep amongst water-dripping reeds evoking pastoral grottoes, is conceived in the George III 'picturesque' or 'Modern' fashion. It relates to patterns for carvers issued in Thomas Johnson's, Collection of Designs, 1758; which also included a bacchic candlestand pattern with richly laden vines (pl. 47). Such vines also featured in an overmantel mirror design executed by the architect Sir Robert Taylor (d. 1788); and appear on a number of Irish mirrors and girandoles, including a set of three oval giltwood pier glasses supplied for the dining-room at Castletown, Co. Kildare and attributed to the Dublin carver Richard Cranfield (d. 1809), circa 1768 (see The Knight of Glin and James Peill, Irish Furniture, London, 2007, fig. 171). A mirror with the label of John Booker of Essex Bridge, Dublin (d. 1749) features similar grape-vine carving and was sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 11 November 1999, lot 167. The present mirror's central trophy comprises the Agnus Dei or banner-bearing Lamb of God.