A PAIR OF GEORGE II GILTWOOD AND GILT-GESSO PIER MIRRORS

Chillington Hall, Staffordshire, has been in the Giffard family's possession since 1178. The house underwent two stages of rebuilding, first in 1724 by Peter Giffard (d. 1746) with architects William (1704-1747) and Francis (1672-1738) Smith, and later by Thomas Giffard (1776-1823) from 1786 to 1789, with a young John Soane (1753-1837) as the architect. These mirrors were likely supplied to the house during the initial reconstruction phase, bearing the Giffard family crest - a panther exhaling fire from its ears and mouth. The family motto, 'Prenez haleine, tirez fort' (take breath and pull hard), originated from an ancestral encounter where a Giffard family member was out hunting and witnessed a panther about to leap on a mother and child, as he shot, it was his son who shouted their motto at the crucial moment, forever associating the panther and archer with the family crest (see: A. Oswald, 'Chllington Hall, Staffordshire: The Home of Mr. T. A. W. Giffard,' Country Life, [Part I], 13 Feb 1948, pp. 326-329; [Part II], 20 Feb 1948, pp. 378-381; [Part III], 27 Feb 1948, pp. 426-429).