Overmantel Mirror
ca. 1774 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Object Type
Overmantel mirrors hung above the fireplace, and at this period were often designed to integrate with the overall decorative scheme of a room. Gilded frames were popular, and often extremely elaborate. This example is designed in the Neo-classical style popularised by Robert Adam (1728-1792) in the second half of the 18th century.
Places
The mirror came from the Drawing Room at Bradbourne Hall, Kent, which was decorated in the Adam style in 1774 for Sir Roger Twisden, 6th Baronet. The focus of the room was a coloured marble mantelpiece said to have come from Italy. It is possible that the designer of the room was inspired by the chimney-piece, as similar Neo-classical motifs are repeated on both the plaster ceiling and mirror.
Materials & Making
Some of the decoration is executed in composition, or 'compo', a doughy substance made of whiting, resin and size which could be moulded and shaped into motifs. The surface of the frame is water gilt. Water gilding requires a gesso ground onto which several thin layers of an adhesive clay known as bole are applied. The gold leaf is then 'laid down' after covering the surface in cold water.
Subjects Depicted
On the cresting sit two winged gryphons, mythical creatures with the head, wings and claws of an eagle, and the body and hind legs of a lion. Similar gryphons appear in contemporary designs for decorative plasterwork by Robert Adam, for example on the ceilings of the Gallery and Hall at Harewood House, Yorkshire, and in the Long Gallery at Syon House on the south-west edge of London.
Overmantel mirrors hung above the fireplace, and at this period were often designed to integrate with the overall decorative scheme of a room. Gilded frames were popular, and often extremely elaborate. This example is designed in the Neo-classical style popularised by Robert Adam (1728-1792) in the second half of the 18th century.
Places
The mirror came from the Drawing Room at Bradbourne Hall, Kent, which was decorated in the Adam style in 1774 for Sir Roger Twisden, 6th Baronet. The focus of the room was a coloured marble mantelpiece said to have come from Italy. It is possible that the designer of the room was inspired by the chimney-piece, as similar Neo-classical motifs are repeated on both the plaster ceiling and mirror.
Materials & Making
Some of the decoration is executed in composition, or 'compo', a doughy substance made of whiting, resin and size which could be moulded and shaped into motifs. The surface of the frame is water gilt. Water gilding requires a gesso ground onto which several thin layers of an adhesive clay known as bole are applied. The gold leaf is then 'laid down' after covering the surface in cold water.
Subjects Depicted
On the cresting sit two winged gryphons, mythical creatures with the head, wings and claws of an eagle, and the body and hind legs of a lion. Similar gryphons appear in contemporary designs for decorative plasterwork by Robert Adam, for example on the ceilings of the Gallery and Hall at Harewood House, Yorkshire, and in the Long Gallery at Syon House on the south-west edge of London.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Carved and gilded pinewood, with ornament in metal and composition |
| Brief description | Overmnantel mirror of gilded pine, the retngular plate with outset top corners, the base cared with a central ram's head, the cresting consisting of pierced scrollwork, centreing on an urn, supported by two griffins. |
| Physical description | Overmantel mirror, of pinewood, carved and gilt. The frame is rectangular with wavy outline at the top, formed of concave moulding carved with water-leaf pattern. Applied to the glass in the two upper corners are circular medallions with pendant husks; in the centre of the top are applied husks and foliage. Above the frame a cresting carved in openwork and consisting of a vase with acanthus foliage above and below it, the handles being connected by festooned drapery with two confronting winged gryphons, whose tails terminate in foliated scrolls. At the side the frame has two scrolled buttresses with foliage decoration; the base carved with vertical fluting, in the centre with a ram's head and husks. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Gallery label | British Galleries:
By the mid-1770s, the Adam style had become a general fashion, reaching most areas of the applied arts. This mirror contains several characteristic Adam decorative motifs, some moulded rather than carved. They include the winged gryphons on the cresting, the vases with rectilinear handles and the ram's head tablet at the base.(27/03/2003) |
| Object history | Made for Sir Roger Twisden, 6th Baronet (died in 1779) for the Drawing Room, Bradbourne House, Larkfield, Kent. Probably made in London Purchased from Moss Harris & Sons, 44 New Oxford Street, London WC1, November 1938 for £150 (Registered File 4814/38, on Nominal File MA/1/H857 Harris M. Sons). It was noted that the mirror was visible in a photograph of the drawing-room at Bradbourne, published in Country Life 24 August 1918, p. 157. When acquired by Messrs Harris, the gryphons had been reversed and portions of the scrolling had to be replaced. It was purchased with the help of the Murray Fund. |
| Production | Made for Sir Roger Twisden, 6th Baronet (died in 1779) for the Drawing Room, Bradbourne House, Larkfield, Kent |
| Summary | Object Type Overmantel mirrors hung above the fireplace, and at this period were often designed to integrate with the overall decorative scheme of a room. Gilded frames were popular, and often extremely elaborate. This example is designed in the Neo-classical style popularised by Robert Adam (1728-1792) in the second half of the 18th century. Places The mirror came from the Drawing Room at Bradbourne Hall, Kent, which was decorated in the Adam style in 1774 for Sir Roger Twisden, 6th Baronet. The focus of the room was a coloured marble mantelpiece said to have come from Italy. It is possible that the designer of the room was inspired by the chimney-piece, as similar Neo-classical motifs are repeated on both the plaster ceiling and mirror. Materials & Making Some of the decoration is executed in composition, or 'compo', a doughy substance made of whiting, resin and size which could be moulded and shaped into motifs. The surface of the frame is water gilt. Water gilding requires a gesso ground onto which several thin layers of an adhesive clay known as bole are applied. The gold leaf is then 'laid down' after covering the surface in cold water. Subjects Depicted On the cresting sit two winged gryphons, mythical creatures with the head, wings and claws of an eagle, and the body and hind legs of a lion. Similar gryphons appear in contemporary designs for decorative plasterwork by Robert Adam, for example on the ceilings of the Gallery and Hall at Harewood House, Yorkshire, and in the Long Gallery at Syon House on the south-west edge of London. |
| Bibliographic reference | Tomlin, Maurice, Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture (London: HMSO for the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1972), cat. no. N/3, pp. 102-103. |
| Other number | 4814/38 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | W.66-1938 |
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| Record created | March 27, 2003 |
| Record URL |
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