Estimated Price:

$60,000 - $80,000

Realized Price:

$87,000

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A FINE AND RARE GEORGE II GILTWOOD MIRROR CIRCA 1735 the cartouche cresting and frieze with masks, the apron with eagles' heads and a circular medallion. height 5ft. 10 1/2 in.; width 38 1/4 in. (179.1cm.; 97.2cm.) This mirror is designed in Palladian style that clearly reflects the influence of the published work of William Jones (fl. from 1737, d. 1757) who published in 1739 The Gentleman or Builder's Companion, containing Variety of usefull Designs for Doors, Gateways, Peers, Pavilions, Temples, Chimney-Pieces &c., and that of Abraham Swan (fl. 1745-68) in The British Architect, published in 1745. Both these books include a number of designs for mirrors that include details found in the present example. Unfortunately little documentation exists which might indicate the maker of this piece, although another mirror which is clearly by the same hand and of almost identical design, is now in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; see Macquoid and Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, 1983, rev. ed., vol. II, p. 335, fig. 60. This bears the crest of the Bowes family of Streatlam, Northumberland, and was probably acquired by Sir George Bowes who held the estates between 1721 and 1760. Unfortunately the Bowes archives only include a reference to one cabinetmaker named Joseph Busby who received several payments for work at Streatlam in 1721. Other than this reference he appears to be unrecorded.