A GEORGE II CARVED GILTWOOD MIRROR, CIRCA 1735

Formerly in the collection of Professor and Mrs Clifford Ambrose Truesdell

Headed by a bearded mask wearing a plumed crown and flanked by female hermed busts, this 'tabernacle' form pier mirror has all the hallmarks of the neo-Palladian style promoted by William Kent and his coterie of patrons. The quality of the carving, the treatment and design of the mask recall the work of James Richards who supplied Frederick, Prince of Wales with furniture for the Royal Gallery at Kew executed from the designs of Kent, illustrated in Adam Bowett, Early Georgian Furniture 1715-1740, Antique Collector's Club, 2009, p. 195, pl. 4:104. A related mirror supplied to Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire is illustrated in Percy Macquoid and Ralph Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, Rev. Ed. 1927, Vol. II, p. 328, fig. 54.