Pair of George III Style Giltwood and Composition Mirrors

A Pair of Italian Neoclassical Giltwood Pier Mirrors. Each mirror having a rectangular plate with husk-carved inner slip and mirrored outer borders divided by rosettes, the entrel...

A Magnificent Pair of George II Style English Carved Giltwood ‘Rococo’ Wall Mirrors After A Design By Thomas Johnson. Of large proportions, each mirror having a cartouche-shaped plate within a profusely carved and pierced branch-entwined frame with stylised acanthus foliate rocaille and ‘C’-scroll decoration, architectural motifs and running dogs, surmounted by an asymmetrical pagoda form cresting with rockwork spires and a seated rustic couple holding a basket, flanked by confronted Ho-Ho birds, with a conforming asymmetrical apron of acanthus and waterwork icicles centred by a perching bird. This magnificent and ornate pair of English wall mirrors or ‘pier glasses’ are refined and reduced from a design by Thomas Johnson (1723–1799) first published in 1756 and included in his ‘Collections of Designs’ (1758), plate 4, and republished in his ‘One Hundred and Fifty New Designs" (1761) as plate 22. Pier Glasses were designed to be placed on the wall or 'pier' between windows; as well as forming part of a decorative scheme they provided an important functional use, creating a reversal of dynamic with the windows at night, reflecting and maximising the light given off by candles or oil lamps. Johnson’s asymmetrical design creates a sense of fluidity and lightness to the mirrors, employing ‘contraste’ in the placing or absence of elements, to create a stylised form, which through the dynamic tension of its constituent parts instils the mirrors with a sense of playfulness and vitality. In London throughout the 1740s and 1750s there developed a great enthusiasm for the whimsical Rococo style, and it rapidly became the height of fashion, popularised, and disseminated throughout the country and further afield by cabinetmakers’ 'Books of Prices', and 'Directories'. The second half of the 19th century saw a revival of the Rococo style in England and many designers and furniture makers turned once again to Chippendale’s ‘Director’ and designs by Matthias Lock and Thomas Johnson for inspiration, with fine examples based on modified designs or specific plates. Thomas Johnson’s designs, executed in a vigourous picturesque manner, are often inspired by the work of earlier French designers, transposing motifs taken from engraved ornament by Jean Bérain, Daniel Marot, William de la Cour, J. B. Toro and Francis Barlow...

A Pair of Venetian Rococo Carved Giltwood Mirrors. These mirrors have elaborate pierced strapwork crestings surmounted by a shell-shaped corona above a cartouche-shaped plate, the...

A Rare and Large Pair of Florentine Cartouche-Shaped Giltwood Wall Mirrors. Each surmounted by an elaborate pierced rocaille cresting of shells and trailing flowers. The frame wais...

A beautiful pair all carved wood and gilded. True pair with the birds facing each other with a bird crest flanked by trailing leaves over an oval mirror plate with carved gadrooned o...

A pair of George II style mirrors Constructed in carved giltwood, the waisted teardrop shaped mercury plates housed within asymmetrical conforming frames in the George II manner richly carved with scrolling foliates and flowering branchwork; adorned with a floral crest and a relief carved flower pendant...

An elegant and rare pair of wall mirrors in elaborately carved giltwood frames after designs by a renowned 18th century cabinetmaker and designer Thomas Chippendale. English, 20th ce...

An elegant and high quality pair of Italian 19th century Baroque st. Giltwood mirrors. Each stunning oval mirror is centered at the bottom by a large pierced Giltwood palmette with f...