A PAIR OF CHINESE-EXPORT REVERSE MIRROR-PAINTINGS

These unusual lyre-shaped frames are similar to a pair of George III giltwood mirrors with inverted heart-shaped frames supplied by Thomas Chippendale, circa 1770, to Edwin Lascelles (d.1795) at Harewood House, Yorkshire (offered anonymously, Christie's, London, 10 July 2003, lot 100). The two pairs of neo-classical frames have similar decorative motifs, with pearled inner edges and stiff-leaf borders. Interestingly, Thomas Chippendale also supplied a frame for a Ch'ien Lung (or Qianlong) (1735-1796) mirror-picture, circa 1765, for Edwin Lascelles Harewood, recorded in the 1795 Inventory, and sold Christie's, London, 1 July 1965, lot 54 (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. I, p. 195 and vol. II, fig. 311).
The form of the lyre-shaped frames was probably influenced by the delicate foliage curving inwards on either side of the painting, the composition of the picture is thus harmoniously enclosed by the frame's curved edge.