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Lot Essay
These mirrors, decorated with bold C-scroll ornament in contrast with finely cut bas-relief foliage centred on Venus’s scallop shell, are typical of the fashion for 'antique' decoration favoured by the court of Louis XIV and popularised in Britain through the engravings published by William III's court architect Daniel Marot (d. 1752), of which James Moore the elder (c. 1670-1726) was perhaps one of the greatest and most skilled exponents. Moore is recorded as working at Nottingham Court, Short's Gardens, St Giles in the Fields and is thought to have undertaken commissions from around 1700. It is likely that he trained under the Gumleys who were cabinet-makers and manufacturers of mirror plate, so he would have gained valuable early experience in the use of the sophisticated gilt cut-gesso work employed here. Moore is known to have supplied gilt-gesso furniture to both Queen Anne and George I for Kensington Palace, the latter whilst in partnership with John Gumley, and went on to supply furniture to John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722) taking over the supervision of the building work at Blenheim after the dismissal of the architect Sir John Vanbrugh - where he became known as Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough's 'Oracle' (G. Beard, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, p. 618-619).
As with Blenheim, Seaton Delaval Hall is the conceit of that most fashionable of English baroque architects, Sir John Vanbrugh (1664-1726); therefore, as with Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, James Moore would have been a logical and highly fashionable choice to whom the Delavals should turn to provide such superb mirrors for their most fashionable of interiors at the ill-fated Seaton. The house burnt in 1822, however, the shell of the main block survived as did a room at the northeast corner of the main block and the ancillary wings. When sold in 2009, it was suggested that these mirrors were likely the ‘Gilt sconces with branches’ listed in the ‘Mahogany Parler [sic]’ in the Seaton Delaval Inventory of 22 January 1755. Given that this room survived the fire, this identification seems even more likely and the very existence of that room is a further indication of the fashionable nature of interiors, with mahogany being almost unheard of in Britain when it was fitted out with ‘mahogany wainscoting’ in 1724.
One mirror was illustrated in Country Life (op. cit.) and Christopher Hussey described it thus: ‘The bevelling is extraordinarily fine… while the quality of the mouldings is superb. No finer work was produced in France, which is high praise for English pieces of this kind’. Although no source is quoted, this sounds as though it may have been a contemporary account. A gilt-gesso table of circa 1715 signed 'Moore' survives in the Royal Collection (T. Murdoch, 'The King's Cabinet Maker: the giltwood furniture of James Moore the Elder', The Burlington Magazine, June 2003, p. 409, pl. 5); a further table attributed to Moore, which echoes not only the quality of the gilt-gesso work employed here but also the employs bold high relief scrolls as one of the main decorative devices, is illustrated and discussed in E. Lennox-Boyd, ed., Masterpieces of English Furniture: The Gerstenfeld Collection, London, 1998, pp. 73-75.
As with Blenheim, Seaton Delaval Hall is the conceit of that most fashionable of English baroque architects, Sir John Vanbrugh (1664-1726); therefore, as with Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, James Moore would have been a logical and highly fashionable choice to whom the Delavals should turn to provide such superb mirrors for their most fashionable of interiors at the ill-fated Seaton. The house burnt in 1822, however, the shell of the main block survived as did a room at the northeast corner of the main block and the ancillary wings. When sold in 2009, it was suggested that these mirrors were likely the ‘Gilt sconces with branches’ listed in the ‘Mahogany Parler [sic]’ in the Seaton Delaval Inventory of 22 January 1755. Given that this room survived the fire, this identification seems even more likely and the very existence of that room is a further indication of the fashionable nature of interiors, with mahogany being almost unheard of in Britain when it was fitted out with ‘mahogany wainscoting’ in 1724.
One mirror was illustrated in Country Life (op. cit.) and Christopher Hussey described it thus: ‘The bevelling is extraordinarily fine… while the quality of the mouldings is superb. No finer work was produced in France, which is high praise for English pieces of this kind’. Although no source is quoted, this sounds as though it may have been a contemporary account. A gilt-gesso table of circa 1715 signed 'Moore' survives in the Royal Collection (T. Murdoch, 'The King's Cabinet Maker: the giltwood furniture of James Moore the Elder', The Burlington Magazine, June 2003, p. 409, pl. 5); a further table attributed to Moore, which echoes not only the quality of the gilt-gesso work employed here but also the employs bold high relief scrolls as one of the main decorative devices, is illustrated and discussed in E. Lennox-Boyd, ed., Masterpieces of English Furniture: The Gerstenfeld Collection, London, 1998, pp. 73-75.