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Lot Essay
With their seated Chinese figures and fanciful pagodas hung with bells, the mirrors illustrate the full flowering of Chinese design presented in a decidedly French ‘picturesque’ or rococo framework. The blend of these two design sources was popularized by Thomas Chippendale in his The Gentleman and Cabinet-maker’s Director (1754-1762) and led to today’s moniker `Chinese Chippendale.’ This style was also adopted by other top cabinet-makers and designers including Thomas Johnson, Mayhew and Ince and Matthias Lock, who likely supplied designs for Chippendale’s publication (J. Simon, ‘Thomas Johnson’s “The Life of the Author,” Furniture History, 2003, p. 3). Lock’s 1760 drawing depicting a similar mirror and pier table is reproduced in P. Ward-Jackson, English Furniture Designs of the Eighteenth Century, London, 1958, pl. 67. Even Sir William Chambers, architect to King George II, produced the `extravagant fancies that daily appear under the name of Chinese’ at the behest of his clients (D. Jacobson, Chinoiserie, London, 1993, p. 126).
Mirrors of similar inspiration, displaying Chinese figures and exotic birds, include the iconic pair from Crichel House, Dorset illustrated in G. Wills, English Looking Glasses, London, 1965, p. 103, fig. 96. A closely related single mirror from the late Honorable Daisy Fellowes, Donnington Park, Berkshire was sold at Woolley and Wallis, Salisbury, 5 July 2017, lot 123 (£78,000) and was also illustrated op. cit., p. 96, fig. 85. Another pair from the collection of the Earls of Winterton at Shillinglee Park, Sussex is now on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (J. Parker, `Rococo and Formal Order in English Furniture,’ Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, June 1964, pp. 130-131). Others include: a further pair from Crichel, sold Christie’s, London, Exceptional Sale, 4 July 2013, lot 26 (£337,875); a pair possibly commissioned for Newby (Baldersby) Park or Studley Royal, Yorkshire, and most recently sold ‘Mount Congreve, Christie’s, London, 23 May 1021, lot 103. (£121,250).
BURTON CONSTABLE: A PROBABLE COUNTRY HOUSE COMMISSION
The mirrors’ early history is intriguing. They were part of ‘an important exhibition’ held by Mallett in 1933 where they were said to have come from Burton Constable, the great Yorkshire estate where Thomas Chippendale is known to have worked from 1768-1779. Although this makes it unlikely that Chippendale supplied the mirrors, both George Reynoldson, his apprentice Richard Farrer, and Wright and Elwick are recorded working at Burton Constable and also subscribed to Chippendale’s Director. Reynoldson (d. 1764), a Yorkshire maker, was known to have supplied a variety of mirrors, gilt candlesticks and chairs (walnut) from 1747, the year Constable inherited, through 1763 (G. Beard and C. Gilbert, eds., Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, p. 739). It is a strong possibility that Reynoldson, influenced by Chippendale’s popular London designs, could have been responsible for the mirrors. Originally white and polychrome-painted, they may have formed part of the architecture of their designated room, much in the manner of Luke Lightfoot’s amazing Chinese interiors at Claydon Park.
THE MIRRORS’ 20TH CENTURY PROVENANCE
The mirrors graced two of Hollywood’s Golden Age most glamorous interiors. They were first purchased by William Randolph Hearst for his longtime mistress, the actress Marion Davies, and hung in the ‘Beach House,’ the deceptively named seaside compound Hearst built and furnished for her at a cost of over $7M. Built in 1926, the 118 room main house was installed with 18th century interiors with paintings by celebrated Old Masters such as Rembrandt, Boucher and Hals. No records exist showing where the mirrors were place but a closely related pair is visible hanging in the Entrance Hall (`Marion Davies’s Ocean House: The Santa Monica Palace Ruled by Hearst’s Mistress’, Architectural Digest, April 1994, p. 172). The mirrors were removed to Hearst Castle in 1945, where they remained until 1960 when Dr. Jules Stein, the legendary founder of MCA, and a friend of Hearst and Davies spotted them in crates. A passionate collector of English furniture, he purchased them for `Misty Mountain,’ his spectacular hilltop house in Bel Air, California. The collection he built there remained intact until it was sold along with the house to the present owner.
Mirrors of similar inspiration, displaying Chinese figures and exotic birds, include the iconic pair from Crichel House, Dorset illustrated in G. Wills, English Looking Glasses, London, 1965, p. 103, fig. 96. A closely related single mirror from the late Honorable Daisy Fellowes, Donnington Park, Berkshire was sold at Woolley and Wallis, Salisbury, 5 July 2017, lot 123 (£78,000) and was also illustrated op. cit., p. 96, fig. 85. Another pair from the collection of the Earls of Winterton at Shillinglee Park, Sussex is now on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (J. Parker, `Rococo and Formal Order in English Furniture,’ Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, June 1964, pp. 130-131). Others include: a further pair from Crichel, sold Christie’s, London, Exceptional Sale, 4 July 2013, lot 26 (£337,875); a pair possibly commissioned for Newby (Baldersby) Park or Studley Royal, Yorkshire, and most recently sold ‘Mount Congreve, Christie’s, London, 23 May 1021, lot 103. (£121,250).
BURTON CONSTABLE: A PROBABLE COUNTRY HOUSE COMMISSION
The mirrors’ early history is intriguing. They were part of ‘an important exhibition’ held by Mallett in 1933 where they were said to have come from Burton Constable, the great Yorkshire estate where Thomas Chippendale is known to have worked from 1768-1779. Although this makes it unlikely that Chippendale supplied the mirrors, both George Reynoldson, his apprentice Richard Farrer, and Wright and Elwick are recorded working at Burton Constable and also subscribed to Chippendale’s Director. Reynoldson (d. 1764), a Yorkshire maker, was known to have supplied a variety of mirrors, gilt candlesticks and chairs (walnut) from 1747, the year Constable inherited, through 1763 (G. Beard and C. Gilbert, eds., Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, p. 739). It is a strong possibility that Reynoldson, influenced by Chippendale’s popular London designs, could have been responsible for the mirrors. Originally white and polychrome-painted, they may have formed part of the architecture of their designated room, much in the manner of Luke Lightfoot’s amazing Chinese interiors at Claydon Park.
THE MIRRORS’ 20TH CENTURY PROVENANCE
The mirrors graced two of Hollywood’s Golden Age most glamorous interiors. They were first purchased by William Randolph Hearst for his longtime mistress, the actress Marion Davies, and hung in the ‘Beach House,’ the deceptively named seaside compound Hearst built and furnished for her at a cost of over $7M. Built in 1926, the 118 room main house was installed with 18th century interiors with paintings by celebrated Old Masters such as Rembrandt, Boucher and Hals. No records exist showing where the mirrors were place but a closely related pair is visible hanging in the Entrance Hall (`Marion Davies’s Ocean House: The Santa Monica Palace Ruled by Hearst’s Mistress’, Architectural Digest, April 1994, p. 172). The mirrors were removed to Hearst Castle in 1945, where they remained until 1960 when Dr. Jules Stein, the legendary founder of MCA, and a friend of Hearst and Davies spotted them in crates. A passionate collector of English furniture, he purchased them for `Misty Mountain,’ his spectacular hilltop house in Bel Air, California. The collection he built there remained intact until it was sold along with the house to the present owner.