Description:
Classical pediment looking glass or mirror topped with a gilt horn with flowers and leaf sprays; a gilded molded, scroll top terminating in rosettes; over an inlaid oval bell flower; over a rectangular reverse-painted or eglomise panel with a ruined castle and trees by water in black, white, gray, and gilding; over a horizontal band of light stringing; pendant gilded flowers and leafage along the two sides; rectangular gilt inner frame around the glass outlined with light stringing; and fretwork base. According to David Barquist, Neoclassical pendiment looking glasses were not imported to or made in America until after the War of Independence; the earliest documented examples date from the 1790s such as one sold in 1794 by New York merchant, William Wilmerding (1762-1832), and a version illustrated on a label used between 1792 and 1795 by the Hartford, Connecticut, cabinetmakers, Samuel Kneeland and Lemuel Adams. Many scholars have identified looking glass of this type as products of New York City or Albany; however, evidence also suggests that they may have also been made in New England. An American-made looking glass of this type was illustrated on a label engraved between 1806 and 1810 for Nathan Ruggles of Hartford, although this label has not been found on a similar frame. A similar looking glass owned by the Bushnell family, early settlers in New Haven, Connecticut, may have been purchased locally, although no looking-glass makers worked in New Haven during this period. Charles Montgomery suggested that this "New York" type of looking glass was an uniquely American design that updated a form out of fashion in England; Barquist does not know of any documented European version of this exact form. Many of these frames have eastern white pine as a secondary wood, which suggests an American origin; however, the possibility that they are English cannot be excluded since American woods were exported to England, and the pediment frame was still fashionable in England as late as the 1790s. The pediment looking glass form changed with the advent of Neoclassicism in England after about 1765. The pediment crest and side pendants were combined with the schematically carved sight edge, rectangular inner frame, and elaborate base and side brackets found on contemporary arched-crest frames. The pediment became more delicate and was ornamented with geometric molding or pictorial inlays, such as this example, instead of carvings; moldings were reduced in scale or replaced with stringing; and composition ornament was used instead of carved decoration. New York carver, John Sandford, advertised "Enamelled Glass for Prints or Tablets, lettered or plain," and also listed looking glasses, girandoles, picture frames, window cornices, brackets, and fancy furniture. This example is one of a group that represents a further modification of the form: frames are taller and narrower, and often have small reverse-painted panels inserted above the glass; the scrolled pediments are more attenuated and graceful, and any vestigial horizontal moldings are eliminated along with the upper corner brackets; carved wood vines are replaced by thin wire with gilt composition leaves and flowers; and finials frequently resemble Greek and Roman vase forms.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2041 |
