George III Carton Pierre Mirror in the manner of John Linnell
£3,500
A George III Carton Pierre mirror the oval plate surmounted by an urn and contained within a frame of elegantly scrolling tendrils of foliage hung with chains of husks
The design for this mirror incorporating a festoon urn, husk-draped oval frame and elaborately scrolled base relates to the drawings executed by John Linnell in the 1770s (H. Hayward, ‘The Drawings of John Linnell’, Furniture History, 1969, figs. 90, 92 and 126). A closely related mirror was sold anonymously [A Collection from a New York Townhouse], Christie’s, New York, 15 April 2005, lot 103 ($18,000 including premium).
However, Linnell is not recorded as having executed mirrors in papier-maché or carton pierre, and amongst the specialist papier-maché frame makers working in the manner promoted by Linnell was the Berwick Street carver and gilder William Duffour (d. 1784), who may have executed a related vase-decked pier-glass (acquired in 1926 by the Victoria & Albert Museum (M. Tomlin, Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture, London, 1982, N/14)).
