CIRCLE OF GEORGE LAMBERT (BRITISH, 1700-1765)

The flower festooned frame has its Arcadian reed-gadrooned border crowned by the nature deity's fretted shell; while the 'picturesque' border fuses the Elements with its reed pilasters issuing waved, water-bubbled and acanthus-wrapped trusses. With its deity mask, intended to recall the Spring goddess Flora, it relates to a frame pattern issued by the carvers Matthias Lock and Henry Copland in 'A New Book of Ornament, 1752, and reissued by Sayer in 1762 (see E. White, Pictorial Dictionary of British 18th Century Furniture Designs, Woodbridge, 1990, p.327).