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Lot Essay
This magnificent pair of Bérainesque pier mirrors is almost en suite with a pair commissioned by William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire (1640-1707) for Chatsworth House, Derbyshire. Probably supplied by John Gumley or Gerrit Jensen, they are probably the mirrors in the Chatsworth accounts for 1705: 'Pd Gilbert Ball Carriage for 2 large Looking glasses & frames (A. Bowett, English Furniture 1660-1714, 2002, pp. 301-303, pl. 9:55). The Chatsworth pair display virtually identical arched crestings with gadrooned border, masks and plume finials, though with a coronet rather than a flowering basket. Although Gerrit Jensen was supplying 'Chimeny Glass' for Chatsworth in 1692, by 1703 Gumley seems to have replaced him as he supplied a pair of pier glasses with blue glass enrichments to the Duke of Devonshire which bear both his etched name and the date (ibid., p. 301, pls. 9:53 & 9:54); the archives record 'Paid Mr Gumley for 2 Large Looking Glasses £200'. As Gumley was engaged to further supply '280 squares of plate glass for West front £280', it seems likely that he would have commissioned Gumley to supply all his 'glasses' going forwards.
Stylistically, the Chatsworth and Beaton mirrors are characteristic of French mirrors of the late Louis XIV and Régence periods - which were also produced in England by exiled Huguenot craftsmen from circa 1700. An early example of this model is in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris (illustrated in S. Roche, Mirrors, Paris, 1956, pl. 65) and two English examples with related verre eglomisé border plates are in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (illustrated in H. Schiffer, The Mirror Book, 1983, p. 47, figs. 73 & 74).
John Gumley (d. 1727) of the 'Vauxhall glass-house' was London's most prominent glass-maker. Extensively patronised by the Royal Household at Hampton Court Palace and elsewhere, he entered into partnership with James Moore in 1714. The business was clearly a commercial success and Gumley's own house in Middlesex was aggrandised to the designs of the Rome-trained architect James Gibbs (d. 1754).
SIR CECIL BEATON, C.B.E. (1904-1980)
The style created by Beaton at Reddish and Ashcombe, Beaton's two beloved Wiltshire houses was described ingeniously by Richard Buckle in 'Du Côté de chez Beaton', his introduction to the Christie's catalogue of the sale of the contents of Reddish House. Was there ever a Beaton style, he asks. Ashcombe, his rented refuge from 1930-1945, blessedly tucked away in the folds of a valley, was a fantastical, theatrical place, the setting for Arcadian, rococo picnics. "Surrealism, popular art and the marché aux puces played a part in its decoration. He sewed Pearly King buttons on curtains, ordered a bed with brass barley-sugar columns from a maker of circus roundabouts, picked up bits of nonsense in Vienna and Venice, painted everything white. Traditional mahogany was out. Certainly he was influenced by Rex Whistler, the supreme eighteenth-century pasticheur, by Oliver Messel, with his turbaned Venetian blackamoors, by Cocteau's poetic conceits, by Bérard's today-ness of perfect Parisian taste, by Syrie Maugham's 'débauches de blancheur". After this wild concoction, came the more restrained, sober merits of Reddish, with its burgundy velvet walls, rosy chintz curtains, Meissen vases, Louis XV and Louis XVI. In the furnishing of Reddish Beaton often consulted Felix Harbord, the interior designer perhaps best known for his work for Mrs. Plunket at Luttrellstown Castle, Co. Dublin (see lot 11) and Paul Walraf.
Beaton was undeniably stylish, giving the critic Kenneth Tynan the impression, on arriving at a society party of "an actor who has just made a superb exit; you would think that he had just come from some garish and exhausting rout on the floor above" (H. Vickers, Cecil Beaton, London, 1993, p. xvii). His photography, and in some ways his whole life, showed he was always open to fresh ideas and new approaches: he urged aspirant photographers to "break every photographic rule ... a technical 'failure' which shows some attempt at aesthetic expression is of infinitely more value than an uninspired 'success'" (C. Beaton, Photobiography, London, 1951, p. 183).
A gilding analysis undertaken by Catherine Hassall of University College London showed that the mirrors have been gilded twice. The first scheme consisted of white gesso followed by a yellow ochre undercoat and then water gilding over reddish brown clay. The second scheme was a fresh layer of gesso and then water gilding over brown clay.
Stylistically, the Chatsworth and Beaton mirrors are characteristic of French mirrors of the late Louis XIV and Régence periods - which were also produced in England by exiled Huguenot craftsmen from circa 1700. An early example of this model is in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris (illustrated in S. Roche, Mirrors, Paris, 1956, pl. 65) and two English examples with related verre eglomisé border plates are in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (illustrated in H. Schiffer, The Mirror Book, 1983, p. 47, figs. 73 & 74).
John Gumley (d. 1727) of the 'Vauxhall glass-house' was London's most prominent glass-maker. Extensively patronised by the Royal Household at Hampton Court Palace and elsewhere, he entered into partnership with James Moore in 1714. The business was clearly a commercial success and Gumley's own house in Middlesex was aggrandised to the designs of the Rome-trained architect James Gibbs (d. 1754).
SIR CECIL BEATON, C.B.E. (1904-1980)
The style created by Beaton at Reddish and Ashcombe, Beaton's two beloved Wiltshire houses was described ingeniously by Richard Buckle in 'Du Côté de chez Beaton', his introduction to the Christie's catalogue of the sale of the contents of Reddish House. Was there ever a Beaton style, he asks. Ashcombe, his rented refuge from 1930-1945, blessedly tucked away in the folds of a valley, was a fantastical, theatrical place, the setting for Arcadian, rococo picnics. "Surrealism, popular art and the marché aux puces played a part in its decoration. He sewed Pearly King buttons on curtains, ordered a bed with brass barley-sugar columns from a maker of circus roundabouts, picked up bits of nonsense in Vienna and Venice, painted everything white. Traditional mahogany was out. Certainly he was influenced by Rex Whistler, the supreme eighteenth-century pasticheur, by Oliver Messel, with his turbaned Venetian blackamoors, by Cocteau's poetic conceits, by Bérard's today-ness of perfect Parisian taste, by Syrie Maugham's 'débauches de blancheur". After this wild concoction, came the more restrained, sober merits of Reddish, with its burgundy velvet walls, rosy chintz curtains, Meissen vases, Louis XV and Louis XVI. In the furnishing of Reddish Beaton often consulted Felix Harbord, the interior designer perhaps best known for his work for Mrs. Plunket at Luttrellstown Castle, Co. Dublin (see lot 11) and Paul Walraf.
Beaton was undeniably stylish, giving the critic Kenneth Tynan the impression, on arriving at a society party of "an actor who has just made a superb exit; you would think that he had just come from some garish and exhausting rout on the floor above" (H. Vickers, Cecil Beaton, London, 1993, p. xvii). His photography, and in some ways his whole life, showed he was always open to fresh ideas and new approaches: he urged aspirant photographers to "break every photographic rule ... a technical 'failure' which shows some attempt at aesthetic expression is of infinitely more value than an uninspired 'success'" (C. Beaton, Photobiography, London, 1951, p. 183).
A gilding analysis undertaken by Catherine Hassall of University College London showed that the mirrors have been gilded twice. The first scheme consisted of white gesso followed by a yellow ochre undercoat and then water gilding over reddish brown clay. The second scheme was a fresh layer of gesso and then water gilding over brown clay.