A Queen Anne Period ‘All Glass’ Border Mirror

A rare early 18th century pier glass, with slightly broad and grounded proportions, retaining the majority of original bevelled plates, the central shaped and plain upper plate above a large rectangular plate, with a beautifully multi-bevelled or ‘channelled’ outer marginal border, joined by decorated gilt paper fillets.
This type of bevelled glass was the most opulent form of framing in the late 17th, early 18th centuries, and typically would have hung in positions such as between pier windows, lightly tilted or ‘kited’ into the room, as was the fashion. A gentle and intricate detail that underlines the quality of this glass is the multiple lined bevels of the border glass plates that would have had an atmospheric coruscating quality by flickering candlelight, emphasising the intricate shaping and quiet stillness of form.

Further literature.
Geoffrey Wills, English Looking Glasses, London 1965, pp 71/72, ill 16-19.
Graham Child, World of Mirrors 1650-1900, London 1990, illus. 28; a pier glass of similar design

Provenance: Tusmore Park

(SN4951)

Height: 185 cm, 72 7/8″
Width: 88 cm, 34 5/8″
Depth: 3.5 cm, 1 3/8″