CIRCA 1670

Name: A CHARLES II RAISED WORK MIRROR
Brand: CIRCA 1670
Price: 85000.00 GBP
Availability: SoldOut

Price Realised GBP 107,100

Estimate

GBP 15,000 - GBP 25,000

Closed: 23 Oct 2024

Loading details

Try our

A CHARLES II RAISED WORK MIRROR

CIRCA 1670

Price Realised GBP 107,100

Closed: 23 Oct 2024

Price Realised GBP 107,100

Closed: 23 Oct 2024

Details Lot Essay Related Articles More from

The rectangular bevelled plate flanked by an embroidery depicting, to the left, a lady playing a mandolin above a unicorn, to the right, a gentleman with a hawk above a leopard, the lower section with a seated lady holding a flower flanked by a lion and a camel, the top section with a seated lady holding a basket of fruit with a cockatrice, a parrot and fruit trees, and the whole with further creatures and insects in relief with metal threads and pastel colours, the reverse covered in lime-green velvet with a ratchetted stand, enclosed in its original brass-bound oak box with engraved and pierced hinges, with label to the reverse indistinctly inscribed in pen 'COHAN', the hinged section of the clasp replaced
23 in. (58.5 cm.) high; 19¹⁄₄ in. (49 cm.) wide

Frederick Skull Esq.
Charles Molyneux Cohan Esq.
S.W. Wolsey, London.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, South Kensington, 21 June 1994, lot 416.
Acquired from Witney Antiques, Grosvenor House Art and Antiques Fair, June 1995.
The Parry Collection; Christie's, London 24 April, 1997, lot 250 (£23,000).

Illustrated London News, 11 October 1952, p. 596, fig. 1.
The Grosvenor House Art and Antiques Fair Handbook, 1995, Witney Antiques, p. 246.
Bowett, Adam. English furniture from Charles II to Queen Anne, 1660-1714. Woodbridge: Antique Collectors’ Club, 1999, p. 132.

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Exhibition of British Embroidery from the 13th Century to the 19th Century, February-March 1959, no. 105.
London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Third International Art Treasures Exhibition, CINOA, April, 1962, no. 154.
London, The Grosvenor House Art and Antiques Fair, Witney Antiques, stand 50.

Conditions of Sale
FAQs
This lot is offered by Christie Manson & Woods Ltd

Brought to you by

Sale EnquiresCollections: London

A Christie's specialist may contact you to discuss this lot or to notify you if the condition changes prior to the sale.

CollectionsEnquiriesLondon@christies.com

Lot Essay

The raised work probably celebrates an engagement or a marriage, representing a couple in Arcadia, fleeing the bustle of town life, for the garden of love. The woman in her flowing robes plays the mandolin, the symbol of harmony, the gentleman in his courtly dress, holds a bird, perhaps a hawk. The garden is evoked by apples, pears, and acorns, growing on diminutive trees. This naive approach to proportion is extended to the caterpillars, rabbits, snails and giant flowers. The fantasy is further enhanced by the combination of mythological creatures such as the unicorn with the real birds and beasts: leopards, camels, lions and parrots. These creatures may well have had symbolic meanings; the unicorn is often seen as a symbol of chastity, the cockatrice represented lust and the peacock, vanity but it is equally likely that they were purely decorative. The diligent worker could purchase models of faces and hands, made both of wood and composition, along with moulds for the fruit and the outlines of the creatures in the form of transfers. This practice no doubt facilitated working on some of the more complex areas of the raised needlework, allowing more time to be spent on experimental stitching, producing the variety of stitching and exquisite workmanship visible in this mirror frame.
A similar dome-shaped stumpwork mirror, dated on the reverse 1672, is illustrated, and its original oak travelling case mentioned, in R.W. Symonds '', London, 1929, p.7, fig 4 from the Percival Griffiths Collection. The same dome-shaped mirror is illustrated with its case in P. Maquoid and R. Edwards, , London, rev. ed., 1984, p. 359, fig. 5.
Further related examples can be seen in P. Macquoid, , London, 1928, vol. III, 'Needlework by P. Macquoid', pp.115-148 and L. Arther, , Glasgow, 1995, pp. 59-74.
A closely related mid-17th Century easel mirror, without its original oak case, was sold at Phillips London, 11 February 1997, lot 51.