A GEORGE III GILTWOOD OVERMANTEL MIRROR

This arched temple-pedimented overmantel mirror is designed in the antique fashion promoted in the 1770s by George III's Rome-trained architect Robert Adam (d. 1792). The overall shape of the frame and its arched cresting applied with wreath, husk swags and corner roundels emitting further husks is closely related to that of an overmantel mirror that is likely to have been commissioned by Sir Roger Twisden, 6th Baronet (d. 1779) for the Drawing Room at Bradbourne Hall, Kent, which was decorated in the Adam style in 1774. The latter mirror displays a ram's-mask tablet to the centre of the base and is surmounted by an elaborate further carved cresting of a Grecian urn guarded by Apollo's sacred griffins issuing scrolling tendrils, intended to evoke sacrifices at Love's altar in antiquity. The Bradbourne mirror, acquired in 1938 by the Victoria and Albert Museum, is illustrated by H.F. Schiffer, The Mirror Book: English, American & European, Pennsylvania, 1938, figs. 469 and 470. A very similar mirror attributed to Ince and Mayhew was recently sold by Apter-Fredericks at Christie's, London, 19 January 2021, lot 41 (£15,000 inc. premium).