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images

Mirror

ca. 1707 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Object Type
Full-length mirrors were an additional luxury and were usually hung between the windows. Glass was not available at the full size, so large mirrors are usually made of two pieces, one for the longer lower section and a separate shaped piece for the upper. Elaborately coloured glass or tooled giltwood borders emphasized the spectacular effect that such larger mirrors gave to an interior.

Materials & Making
The glass border was decorated on the back by applying gold leaf, engraving a pattern in the gold and then applying a layer of blue paint to fill the pattern. This was called 'mosaic work'. It was later given the name verre églomisé, after the Parisian picture framer Jean-Baptiste Glomy (died around 1786). The ornamental pattern used here is close to the engravings of Jean Berain (died 1711), court designer to Louis XIV (ruled 1643-1715). The figures in the lower borders represent Flora, the classical goddess of flowers, and her husband Zephyr, the west wind of springtime.

People
The mirror may have been made in the workshop of Thomas Pelletier (born 1680, died after 1725) and Ren‚ Pelletier (active 1681, died 1726), sons of Jean Pelletier, a Huguenot (French Protestant ‚migr‚) carver and gilder from Paris. Their workshop was in Covent Garden, London. In 1707 the Pelletier brothers provided Ralph, 1st Duke of Montagu with verre églomisé overmantels for Ditton House, Buckinghamshire.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Parts
This object consists of 3 parts.

  • Mirror
  • Cresting (Main)
  • Cresting (Part)
Materials and techniques
Cast glass, with borders of <i>verre eglomisé</i> (glass backed with engraved gold leaf), and silvered pinewood
Brief description
Mirror, verre eglomise, English, 1710-30
Physical description
Mural looking glass. Narrow outer frame and wide cresting of softwood carved in relief, the cresting also in openwork and silvered. Inner glass frame decorated on the reverse in gilding against a blue ground (verre eglomise).
Two looking glass plates with bevelled edges fastened by ten transverse binders of chased brass, the upper plate arch-shaped, and with ground scroll decoration, the lower plate rectangular. The narrow, gilded outer frame with foliated moulding in relief. The carved cresting in the form of a female bust on a pedestal flanked by classical flanked by symmetrical scrollwork and acanthus foliage. In the inner (verre eglomise) frame on either side below, a pair of nymphs of divine personifications standing on plinths below canopies; the other portions of this frame decorated with panels containing foliations in gold against blue. Upper plate decorated with a scrolled device with three formal thistles.

Dimensions
  • Including cresting height: 234cm
  • Width: 88cm
  • Including mirror plates depth: 18cm
  • Without cresting height: 176.5cm
  • Frame alone depth: 3.7cm
100 estimated JT 7/2/2000. Dimensions checked: Measured; 18/11/1999 by SP/NH
Gallery label
(pre October 2000)
MIRROR
ENGLISH; about 1720
Silvered wood with a border of verre eglomisé.

Given by Brigadier W.E. Clark, C.M.G., D.S.O., through the National Art-Collections Fund.
(27/03/2003)
British Galleries:
The French-style wood carving and blue-gold borders on this mirror are of the highest quality. Thistles on the glass and cresting suggest that the mirror was made to celebrate the Act of Union between Scotland and England made in 1707. Such large mirrors were astonishing innovations, giving a full-length reflection for the first time.
(01/12/2012)
Mirror
About 1707
Possibly supplied by Thomas Pelletier (about 1680–1725) and René Pelletier (about 1681–1726)

Probably England (London)

Frame and cresting: softwood, carved and silvered
Mirror (original): glass with mercury–tin amalgam and cut decoration; verre églomisé borders

Gift of Brigadier W.E. Clark CMG, DSO through the Art Fund [+ Art Fund logo]
Museum no. W.27-1954

The cresting has been silvered using the same method as water gilding. Unusually, the silvering is only slightly tarnished. The glass borders are backed with engraved gold leaf. A layer of blue paint shows the areas that were scraped away. This technique came to be known as verre églomisé, after Jean-Baptiste Glomy, a Parisian picture framer who died in 1786.
Credit line
Given by Brigadier W. E. Clark CMG, DSO through Art Fund
Object history
Possibly supplied by the workshop of Thomas Pelletier (born in Paris, 1680, died in London, after 1725) and Ren Pelletier (born in France, active in Amsterdam, 1681, died in London 1726)
Probably made in London, using English glass.

Notes from R.P. 54/2599

31 August 1954 Gift form
lists as "mirror carved (..?..) cresting. Decorated with verre eglomise ( )17th cent."

23/8/54 Minute of Ashton
states that the "eglomise looks better than either we already have"

Draft catalogue description
Lists this as "English - early 18th century".

In 1950 the mirror was advertised for sale in Connoisseur magazine by the antique dealers, Mallet & Son, who described it as ‘a superb William & Mary mirror, circa 1690’.
Historical context
Comparable mirrors
Carlton Hobbs, Richly Furnish'd: Baroque Furniture in England 1660-1735 [selling catalogue] including an important group of seat furniture from the collection of Nicholas Grindley LLC. Foreward by Dr Adam Bowett (2019)
4 A verre eglomise overmantel attrib Pelletier workshop with painted section with allegory of William III, London 1680-1700, pp. 28-35
Summary
Object Type
Full-length mirrors were an additional luxury and were usually hung between the windows. Glass was not available at the full size, so large mirrors are usually made of two pieces, one for the longer lower section and a separate shaped piece for the upper. Elaborately coloured glass or tooled giltwood borders emphasized the spectacular effect that such larger mirrors gave to an interior.

Materials & Making
The glass border was decorated on the back by applying gold leaf, engraving a pattern in the gold and then applying a layer of blue paint to fill the pattern. This was called 'mosaic work'. It was later given the name verre églomisé, after the Parisian picture framer Jean-Baptiste Glomy (died around 1786). The ornamental pattern used here is close to the engravings of Jean Berain (died 1711), court designer to Louis XIV (ruled 1643-1715). The figures in the lower borders represent Flora, the classical goddess of flowers, and her husband Zephyr, the west wind of springtime.

People
The mirror may have been made in the workshop of Thomas Pelletier (born 1680, died after 1725) and Ren‚ Pelletier (active 1681, died 1726), sons of Jean Pelletier, a Huguenot (French Protestant ‚migr‚) carver and gilder from Paris. Their workshop was in Covent Garden, London. In 1707 the Pelletier brothers provided Ralph, 1st Duke of Montagu with verre églomisé overmantels for Ditton House, Buckinghamshire.

Bibliographic references
  • Julian Litten, 'The English Way of Death' (London 1991), fig. 60, p. 109, 113 'Strips of gilt lead coffin lace were used to mask the joints of engraved border glass on this pier-glass. Did the carpenter also provide for funerals, one wonders?'
  • Carlton Hobbs, catalogue no. 10 (2014) discusses and illustrates this mirror on pp. 23-4, in relation to an overmantel mirror with similar frame.
  • Connoisseur magazine, December 1950
Other number
54/2599 - RF number
Collection
Accession number
W.27:1 to 4-1954

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Record createdJanuary 24, 2001
Record URL
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