Oliver Cornish
Sale Coordinator for Furniture, Sculpture, Rugs & Tapestries
Lot 21TP
A near pair of George I giltwood and gilt gesso girandoles or mirrorsCirca 1725
3 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£8,000 - £12,000
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Thomas Moore
Head of Department
A near pair of George I giltwood and gilt gesso girandoles or mirrors
Circa 1725
Each with a shaped and arched bevelled plate within a conforming cavetto moulded surround interspersed by shaped punch decorated reserves each with shallow-relief carved acanthus and stiff-leaf foliage, above a shaped and scrolled punched apron with two addorsed foliate wrapped s-scrolls flanking a central scallop shell, the shaped pierced scrolled acanthus, c-scroll and bellflower carved cresting surmounted by a flared lambrequin, both re-gilt, one mirror with a partially legible inscription to its reverse, each mirror with two brass candle sconce attachments but their detachable brass candle arms are lacking, 121cm high x 55.5cm wide. (2)
Each with a shaped and arched bevelled plate within a conforming cavetto moulded surround interspersed by shaped punch decorated reserves each with shallow-relief carved acanthus and stiff-leaf foliage, above a shaped and scrolled punched apron with two addorsed foliate wrapped s-scrolls flanking a central scallop shell, the shaped pierced scrolled acanthus, c-scroll and bellflower carved cresting surmounted by a flared lambrequin, both re-gilt, one mirror with a partially legible inscription to its reverse, each mirror with two brass candle sconce attachments but their detachable brass candle arms are lacking, 121cm high x 55.5cm wide. (2)
Footnotes
Provenance
The offered lot previously belonged to Sir Anthony Cope Bart., whose family residence was Bramshill Park, in Hampshire. It seems highly likely that the present mirrors formed part of the furnishings at Bramshill.
Subsequently, they were purchased by the family of the current owner and vendor from Mallett & Son Ltd, New Bond Street, London, 25 September 1967.
These beautiful looking glasses belonged to the late Sir Joseph and Lady Barnard, thereafter remaining within the same family and passing by descent therein.
They formed part of the furnishings of East Harlsey Hall, Northallerton, in North Yorkshire, which was until recent years the family residence of the Barnards.
A related gilt mirror of circa 1720, with similar c-scroll and scrolled acanthus carving to its cresting, and also with a central lambrequined element, appears illustrated in G. Child, World Mirrors, 1650-1900, London, 1990, fig. 48, p. 77. This is described therein as being in the manner of James Moore.
Although the provenance information provided in the Mallett invoice for the offered mirrors does not make clear reference to exactly which Anthony Cope Bart. previously owned them, it is very likely referring to someone who lived in the 20th century, rather than pertaining to a person from an earlier era. And given that Sir Anthony Mohun Leckonby (1927-1966), who had been 15th Baronet Cope of Hanwell, died only approximately a year (or perhaps less than this) before the offered lot was acquired from Mallett in 1967, it seems highly probable that the former owner was this individual.
The origins of the Cope family Baronetcy are of fascinating English historical interest. Anthony Cope (c. 1548-1614), who had been born in Hanwell, Oxfordshire, rose to be a significant Puritan member of parliament, first serving Banbury in this capacity before later establishing himself as a representative for the whole of his county between 1604 and 1614, the latter being the year of his death. Another of his responsibilities saw him functioning as Sheriff of Oxfordshire during three separate tenures: in 1581, 1590 and 1603 respectively.
Cope achieved all of this despite enduring a brief period of imprisonment within the Tower of London. He was incarcerated there for about a month in 1587 and thus sentenced by reason of attempting to bestow the latest puritan reworking of the Book of Common Prayer upon the Speaker of the House of Commons. In addition to this, Cope had brought forth to parliament a bill requesting the repeal of essentially all contemporary canon law.
Nonetheless, sometime in the period, 1592-1593, he was knighted by HM Queen Elizabeth I, and then subsequently awarded with the title of Baronet by HM King James I in 1611. It is even believed that Sir Anthony hospitably received the latter monarch at his house in Hanwell, both in 1606 and 1612. Thus, it was that the minor aristocratic Cope legacy and honourable inheritance, were founded and thereafter further prospered for a considerable length of time.