A French gilt-bronze mirror frame, partly Régence, circa 1720

From a private Parisian collection

Gilt-bronze wall mirrors are exceptionally rare in 18th-century France. There does appear to have been a brief vogue for such objects in the 1720s, when the duc d'Orléans commissioned seven gilt-bronze mirrors for his residences at the Palais Royal and Château de Saint-Cloud. One appears in an inventory of Saint-Cloud under item no. 2951, described as 'un miroir à bordure de glace et ornements de bronze doré d'or moulu avec son chapiteau aussi de glace et ses ornements de bronze doré d'or moulu. La glace dudit miroir de soixante six poulces de haut par quarante trois poulces de large. 800 livres.' This is significantly larger than the present mirror and of a type clearly corresponding to the classic miroir à parcloses with a border and cresting of additional glass panels, a form that proliferated during the Régence and the early years of Louis XV's reign.

Two large gilt-bronze mirrors of the miroir à parcloses form have survived: one, formerly in the collection of the late Hubert de Givenchy, sold at Christie's, Monaco, 4 December 1993, lot 43 (attributed to Charles Cressent), and the other sold at Christie's, Paris, 14 June 2022, lot 21. The latter example employs female masks at the four corners identical to the mask on the cresting of the offered lot, a model that appears as a mount on bureaux plats and coffers-on-stand by Boulle and his followers, and also appears in a c.1711 engraved design for a commode by Jean Bérain. The cabinetmaker Charles Cressent, who, like Boulle, designed and manufactured his own gilt-bronze mounts, also appears to have produced mirrors in this medium. As he did not enjoy royal protection, Cressent fell foul of guild restrictions and was subject to legal proceedings, including the confiscation of bronzes from his workshop in 1722-23, which, according to a bailiff's report, included 'onze masques représentant tant testes d'hommes que de femmes lesquels sont tous coifez de différentes façons [...] faites pour des miroirs' (Alexandre Pradère, Charles Cressent. Sculpteur, ébéniste du Régent, Dijon, 2003, p. 200). The decorative repertoire of our mirror is reminiscent of the work of Charles Cressent.