Mirror, walnut, gilt wood, English, 1725-35

Wall mirror or pier glass of tall rectangular form with a scrolling arched top. The top is surmounted by a gilded crest of punched ground with scrolling acanthus carving of low relief which supports, centrally at the top, an outward turned scallop shell. The narrow wooden frame is veneered in walnut with a sight-edge of gilded gesso moulding. The back in softwood. The glass is in two bevelled panes, the upper pane (35 x 47cm) is reverse cut with an 8-pointed star in the centre and four trefoil motifs along the join with the lower pane. The panes join in a wavy line. The lower pane is 77 x 48cm.

Bequeathed by Miss C. A. R. Adams

Bequest of Miss C.A.R. Adams of Rowsley, Selsdon Road, South Croydon per her Executors, Messrs Edridge & Drummond, 4 High Street, Croydon.

Tall narrow mirrors like this are known as pier glasses, as they were hung on the wall – or pier – between two windows. The drawing room of a fashionable house would often have a pair of pier glasses. Tall mirrors often had glass in several parts, as in this case, owing to the technical difficulty of producing large sheets. The glass is framed with a narrow convex walnut moulding; the cresting is carved and gilded.

On loan to Lamport Hall.

W.18-1947