A Pair of George II Carved and Giltwood Mirrors, Circa 1755

Possibly supplied to William Clavering-Cowper, 2nd Earl Cowper (1709-1764) at Cole Green Park, Hertfordshire, or to Jemima Yorke, 2nd Marchioness Grey (1723-1797) at Wrest Park Bedfordshire;

The Earls of Cowper, Panshanger Manor, Hertfordshire, in the 19^th Century;

Thence by descent until sold, Christie’s London, 15 April 1999, lot 20

This beautifully drawn pair of mirrors was originally part of a set of at least three, the third remaining with the owner who sold the pair in 1999, suggesting they originally may have hung above pier tables between windows in a long hall or large drawing room. The vigorously carved rockwork, acanthus scrolls and dynamically contorted dragon crest are all typical of the fashionable rococo designs of Matthias Lock, first published as Six Sconces in 1744, whilst the lion’s mask on the lower section recalls the more classical work of William Kent as seen in an engraving for a pier table in John Vardy’s Some Designs of Mr Inigo Jones and Mr William Kent (1744), plate 41.

The mirrors descended from the Earls of Cowper, whose seat was Panshanger Manor, a Gothic Revival house built for the Fifth Earl (1778-1837) between 1806 and 1809 by the architect William Atkinson, who had also redesigned Thomas Hope’s Deepdene in Surrey. The house is believed to have been furnished in a resolutely Regency style, so it is unlikely the mirrors would have been specifically acquired for the new interiors and must have entered into the family’s possession from an older property. Panshanger had been constructed on the site of an earlier house, Cole Green Park, built for Sir William Cowper (later the 1^st Earl) (1775-1723) in the early 18^th century, and it is possible his son the 2^nd Earl (1709-1764) acquired the mirrors around the same time he commissioned the landscape architect Capability Brown to redesign the park in 1756.

Alternatively, the mirrors may have originated at nearby Wrest Park in Bedfordshire, first built by Henry Grey, 1 Duke of Kent (1671-1740) and inhabited after his death by his granddaughter Jemima, 2^nd Marchioness Grey, who in 1758 also called upon Capability Brown to work on the gardens and park. In 1833 her great nephew Thomas Robinson, 2^nd Earl de Grey (1781-1859) chose to rebuild the house in the manner of an 18^th-century French chateau and created some of the earliest Rococo revival interiors in England with an important collection of French furniture. On his death, Wrest Park was inherited by his eldest daughter Anne, who had married the 6^th Earl Cowper (1806-1856). As the mirrors would have been stylistically compatible with the new French interiors, it is possible they were retained at Wrest Park and transferred at some stage to Panshanger. The earldom of Cowper became extinct following the death of the childless 7^th Earl in 1905, and Panshanger ceased serving as a family residence and was eventually demolished in 1954.