A GEORGE II GILTWOOD PIER MIRROR
Lot 125

A GEORGE II GILTWOOD PIER MIRROR

CIRCA 1740

Closed13 June 2018

Price Realised

GBP 12,500

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A GEORGE II GILTWOOD PIER MIRROR
CIRCA 1740
With broken swan neck pediment and foliate scrolled cartouche, the eared frame carved with Vitruvian scrolls, egg-and-dart moulding and acanthus leaves to the corners, the sides flanked by ribboned fruiting garlands, the plate later, replacements to the cresting, re-gilt
52 x 27 in. (132 x 68.5 cm.)

Chirk Castle, Wrexham, Wales; sold Christie's house sale, 21 June 2004, lot 89.

Specialist note

This fruit-garlanded 'tabernacle' frame, with Ionic wave-scrolled pediment, is designed in the George II Roman fashion popularised by William Jones's Gentleman or Builder's Companion, 1739. In view of the size of the plate and therefore its value, this mirror may well be the 'Pier Glass, Gilt and Burnish'd Frame 6. 6' recorded in the 1795 Inventory in the Breakfast Room at Chirk Castle, Wrexham.

Chirk Castle was built in 1295 by the 1st Earl of March for King Edward I's chain of fortresses across Wales. It was the seat of the Myddleton family from 1595. Under Richard Myddleton (1726-1795) a series of improvements were made in the highly fashionable neoclassical taste, probably influenced by the remodelling of his first wife's ancestral home by Lord Burlington in the Palladian style. In 2004 Chirk was acquired by the National Trust and whilst much of the contents of the Public Rooms were retained, the majority of the collection was dispersed by Christie's in 21 June 2004.