| Culture: | English (probably) or American (possibly)
| | Title: | looking glass
| | Date Made: | ca. 1750
| | Type: | Furniture
| | Materials: | wood: Scots pine (probably); japanning, gilding, silver leaf, oil paint, glass
| | Place Made: | United Kingdom; England (probably) or United States, New York, New York City (possibly)
| | Measurements: | overall: 39 x 17 5/8 in.; 99.06 x 44.7802 cm
| | Narrative Inscription: | on the reverse: "Heriloom through Hermanus Wendell 1700"
| | Accession Number: | HD 56.160
| | Credit Line: | Museum purchase
| | Museum Collection: | Historic Deerfield
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Description:
Looking glass with gilded decoration over green japanning purported to have been owned by the Wendell family. The Wendells were a prominent Albany, New York, family whose knowlege of fashion undoubtedly included "japanned" decoration on furniture done to imitate Asian lacquerwork. Although this example was probably imported, a dozen colonial japanners are known to have worked in Boston before the Revolution, and several examples of their work have survived. New York japanning is more elusive, but may be documented by this looking glass with its atypical japanning (for Boston) on a green background. New Yorker Gerardus Duyckinck, Jr. advertised in 1746 that "he continues the business of his late father, deceased, Viz. Limning, Painting, Varnishing, Japanning, Guilding, Glazing, and Silvering of Looking-Glasses, all done in the best manner." The silvered glass is bevelled. The scrolled top is decorated with a gilded flower and foliate spray on the left, center shell, and two men with hats sitting on a running fence on the right; the rectangular mirror is surrounded with a band of alternating flower sprays and diaperwork; and the scrolled base has a two-handled urn filled with flowers.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+56.160 |
