A George III giltwood pier mirror, circa 1760, attributed to John Linnell

Standing at a magnificent 8ft 6in. (260cm), this mirror is far taller than any of the people who would examine themselves in its reflection, and these dimensions are the clearest indication that this mirror was conceived for a grand eighteenth-century interior with superbly high ceilings. It is not merely the scale of this mirror, and its luxuriously large single plate, that make it exceptional, but also the plenitude of its magnificent carving. At sites such as the cornucopia-centred crest, sculptor's sensitivity to detail combines with a fulsome grandeur to remarkable effect.

Among well-documented makers in furniture history, this mirror is most likely to be by John Linnell (1729–1796), an attribution strengthened by an existing drawing of a similar mirror. While Linnell’s bravura versatility means that his documented artworks are in a wide variety of styles, he is well-known for his successful ‘transition’ pieces, and strong results for mirrors at auction are often from this period.¹ Furniture historians are fortunate in having many extant Linnell drawings to examine, and among those held at in the V&A collection is a wonderful design that is closely comparable to the present lot (E.236-1929). This drawing shares the combination of an essentially rectangular shape with scrolls to both the bottom and top corners, and with a swan neck pediment centred by a cornucopia or a bouquet of similar form. In addition, a mirror made to this design is at Hopetoun House,² and several details of the execution of this Hopetoun mirror match the present lot. Notably, the unusual foliate scrolls to the pediment match this mirror, as does the treatment of the gill-like Rococo ears.

Beyond the Hopetoun example, there are few that rival the present lot in the combination of design, carving and scale. An example at Hagley Hall is more Rococo in its overall conception but has several design similarities with the present lot.³ The design vocabulary of the present mirror is most akin to that of Linnell, but it is worth noting that some of John Vardy’s designs share the same ‘transitional’ and somewhat eclectic spirit, such as the ones held in RIBA under the reference numbers RIBA37271, RIBA20139 and RIBA36490. The works of another well-known designer in the period, Matthias Lock, remain essentially Kentian, but are also a point of reference when looking mirrors around 1760s that use profuse, entwining foliage and festoons to add a rampantly naturalistic feel to essentially rectilinear mirrors (e.g. V&A 2564, 2565).

The design of this mirror is unconventional in the way it deploys motifs that were popular at various points in the first half of the eighteenth century, but in unexpected combination. For instance, the low-relief strapwork to the inner frame was at its most popular in the 1710s and 1720s, but the swan-neck pediment is more typical of later ‘Palladian’ pieces. The fact that the mirror only has one central plate is characteristic of smaller, George I pieces, whereas most of the large-scale mirrors contemporary with the present example tend to incorporate marginal plates. While the overall character is of a piece created during the ‘transition’ period between the Rococo and the Neoclassical styles, the design of this mirror is idiosyncratic and highly inventive.

¹ See, for instance, Sotheby’s New York, Hyde Park: An Unreserved Farewell, 15 October 2025, lot 85 ($139,700) and Christie’s New York, 16 April 2002, lot 50.

² H. Hayward and P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell: Eighteenth-Century London Furniture Makers, London, 1980, vol. II, pp.108-109, figs. 210-212.

³ J. Cornforth, Early Georgian Interiors, New Haven, 2004, p.305, fig.416.