AN EARLY GEORGE III GILTWOOD MIRROR

This flower-wreathed mirror pattern relates in part to Thomas Chippendale's girandole patterns and his 1760 'Oval Glass Frame' pattern published in The Director and Cabinet-maker's Director, 3rd edn., 1762, pl. 168. These in turn relate to Chippendale's girandole supplied in 1766 to the Duke of Portland and acquired in 1855 by the South Kensington Museum, now known as the Victoria and Albert Museum (O. Brackett, Thomas Chippendale, 1925, pp. 238-239). A pier glass of similarform but wtih foliate canopy was sold from the collection of Lord and Lady Hesketh, Easton Neston, Northamptonshire, Sotheby's house sale, 17-19 May 2005, lot 118.The mirror once formed part of the collection of the 3rd Earl of Feversham (d.1963) when he resided at Nawton Towers, Yorkshire (according to the 1967 trade advertisement). It is conceivable that it may have previously hung within the palatial seat of his predecessors at Duncombe Park in Yorkshire. Built in the early 18th century, the house has since undergone many changes. Most notably, Charles Barry was commissioned to add flanking blocks to the entrance front in 1843, and a fire in 1879 caused serious damage and necessary rebuilding and refurbishing in the late 19th century. The building was abandoned by the family when it was leased out as a girls school in 1924 and it has since been re-occupied by the present Earl, the 3rd Earl's son. The mirror does not appear in the Duncombe Park house sale conducted by Henry Spencer and Sons on 7 April 1959.