This pair of pier-glasses epitomizes the ‘tabernacle’ form that dominated English mirror design in the mid-18th century, replacing earlier French Baroque-inspired styles with those derived from Italian architecture. In the 18th century, the term ‘tabernacle’ referred to an architectural niche for displaying statues or busts and was first applied to mirrors in the 1720s (see A. Bowett, Early Georgian Furniture, 1715-1740, Woodbridge, 2008, p. 294). Although crafted by carvers or cabinetmakers, these mirrors were typically designed by architects, for whom a pier-glass was as essential to a room as the windows between which it would hang. Mirror designs evolved alongside architectural styles from Baroque to Palladian to Neoclassical, as chronicled in design books by architects including Lord Burlington, Isaac Ware, William Kent, William Jones, Abraham Swan, James Gibbs and John Vardy, always expressing the latest movements in the realm of architecture.
The structure and decoration of the present mirrors were likely dictated by the need to harmonize with the design of their surrounding room. Their squared bases were almost certainly designed to rest on a room’s dado rail or corresponding pier tables, and their outset corners may have matched wall paneling or door surrounds. The ornament, including the straight broken pediment, egg-and-dart molding and the crossed palms at the frieze, may have been chosen to match the room’s overall decorative scheme. The palm motif, a symbol of victory and harmony since antiquity, was frequently used in 18th-century English design, especially in bedrooms due to its associations with marital love and fertility. The presence of crossed palms on these mirrors may suggest the influence of John Vardy (1718-1765), a disciple of the Palladian William Kent (1685-1748) whose work at Spencer House inaugurated the transition to the new Neoclassical style of the later 18th century. Vardy’s contributions to Spencer House represent an apotheosis of the palm motif, from the enormous pair of crossed fronds crowning the façade above Green Park, to the magnificent Palm Room where the gilt fronds integral to the architectural are matched by a palmy decorative suite, with gilt fronds carved on a pier-glass and a set of seat furniture, and a pendant lantern hangs, modeled with miniature palm trees.
Vardy’s carved palms, as well as the full collage of motifs seen on the present mirrors comprise a quintessential example of a mirror type Adam Bowett has described as an 'emblem of what came to be perceived as the national or "British" style' from the 1730s through the 1760s, although ultimately each motif derives from Italian architecture (see A. Bowett, op. cit., p. 297). Tabernacle mirrors from this period combine design motifs from the same vocabulary originating in Classical Rome and Renaissance Italy, employing a loose system of festoons, acanthus, rosettes, volutes and corbels, straight and swan-neck pediments, triglyphs and Roman-style moldings. These mirrors vary in their selection of motifs, ornateness, and surface treatments, which might include painting, parcel-gilding and gilding over glued sand—the present mirrors themselves were likely originally sand-decorated and later re-finished with white paint and parcel-gilding—but all elements trace their origins back to Italy (for a discussion of the origins of Vardy’s palm designs with Borromini and Inigo Jones, see J. Friedman, Spencer House: Chronicle of a Great London Mansion, London, 1993, pp. 84-85, 114-121).
Although the original home and designer of these pier-glasses remain unknown, their design is indisputably British, embodying the unique infusion of Italian design into British architecture that shaped the regional style of the mid-18th century. For a survey of similar mirrors, see G. Child, World Mirrors 1650-1900, London, 1990, pp. 82-88, figs. 69-87. The closest example in Child’s monograph is fig. 84a, a mirror also with a straight pediment, scrollwork cartouche, palms at the frieze, outset upper corners and scrolling lower corners, which was sold by Sotheby’s, London, 10 July 1970, lot 54. This example is fully gilt, dated circa 1735, and interestingly, applied with natural seashells.