A PAIR OF GEORGE III GILTWOOD GIRANDOLE MIRRORS

These mirrors are conceived in the French picturesque manner popularised by 'Girandole' patterns issued in Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1762, Third edition, pl. CLXXVIII, and the carver Thomas Johnson's Twelve Girandoles, 1755. They represent the merging of various styles with their whimsical 'antique' pilasters fused with vegetation emblematic of the Elements and their homage to chinoiserie. The carved giltwood lattice-work basket of flowers at the top of the girandoles is a motif often associated to William and John Linnell, as illustrated in a pair of pier glasses, circa 1755-60, made for Bramshill, Hampshire, and ordered by Sir Monoux Cope, 7th Baronet (d. 1795) (H. Hayward, P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, London, 1980, p. 98, figs. 187-188).