A George I Gilt-Gesso Mirror, Circa 1720

Ronald Phillips Ltd., London;

From whom acquired by Aso O. Tavitian, 21 June 2006.

The high quality of the carved and gesso designs of this mirror is similar to the work of the royal cabinetmakers James Moore Senior (1670-1726) and John Gumley (1691-1727). The two entered into partnership in 1714 and supplied gilt gesso tables, stands and mirrors to Kensington and St James's Palaces which remain in the Royal Collection today. Gumley had developed a particular specialty in pier glasses, having been admitted a freeman of the Glass Sellers’ Company as a ‘Looking Glass Grinder’ on 22 June 1704, and in April 1714 advertised in The Lover that he had 'taken for a Ware-house, and furnished all the upper Part of the New Exchange in the Strand…with the largest and finest Looking Glasses in Frames, and out of Frames'. His documented commissions include diverse mirrors and glass plates supplied to the Dukes of Bedford, Devonshire and Montrose.