Antique Painted Palladian Overmantel Mirror

About This Object

A fine antique Georgian overmantel mirror of Palladian architectural form in the style of William Kent, painted white and grey. Originally a picture frame, mounted as mirror in 19th century with a nice old plate.

English, mid-18th to early 19th century, re-decorated, part dry-stripped to reveal the original finish.

Why we like it

The design of this fabulous looking mirror is typical of the early-mid 18th century Palladian fashion, inspired by the architecture of the Roman antiquity. William Kent was one of the most celebrated classical architects in the 18th century Britain and this style is often associated with his oeuvre on stylistic grounds. This Palladian architectural mirror relates to drawings dated 1721-22 by Scottish architect, James Gibbs (d.1754), published in The Book of Architecture (1728), and which pre-date similar designs for overmantels and 'tabernacle' mirrors by contemporaries including E. Hoppus, The Gentleman and Builder's Repository (1737), and William Jones, The Gentlemens or Builders Companion (1739) (Compiled by E. Joy, Pictorial Dictionary of British 18th Century Furniture Design, Woodbridge, 1990, p. 361, plate LV; p. 324, plate 47).Gibbs almost certainly inspired the Rome-trained artist, architect and illustrator, William Kent (d.1748), who was appointed Master Carpenter to George II's Architectural Board of Works in 1726. In 1724, Kent designed a closely related chimneypiece overmantel for his patron, Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington (d.1753) for Chiswick House, Middlesex that displays similar egg and dart moulding and volutes, and in circa 1724-25, an impressive pair of comparable frames for the hall at Ditchley Park, Oxon (Ed. Susan Weber, William Kent, Designing Georgian Britain, New Haven and London, 2013, p. 31, fig. 1.4; p. 153, fig. 6.4).