A pair of early George III carved giltwood pier mirrors, circa 1765

A pair of early George III carved giltwood pier mirrors, circa 1765

each cresting surmounted by a seated monkey dressed in a frock coat, with pierced acanthus-scrolled and rockwork surrounds, the later divided arched rectangular plate within foliate, rocaille and palm frond surrounds, with pierced foliate-scrolled apron, re-gilt

224cm. high, 106cm. wide; 7ft. 4 3/16in., 3ft. 5 3/4in.
Provenance

The Collection of Sir Charles Lockhart Ross, Balnagown Castle, Scotland;
Acquired from Partridge Fine Arts, London.Literature
Partridge Fine Arts, London, Recent Acquisitions, 1993, no. 13, p.36.

This splendid pair of mirrors takes the large-scale form of the dramatic and Rococo-style pier mirrors often designed by the finest furniture makers of the mid-18^th century. While the size of the single large mirror pane was itself an indicator of luxury, designers like Thomas Chippendale and Thomas Johnson also used the carved frame to display high-relief carving with a joyful abundance of decorative motifs. The cresting of a mirror had long been the most important component of the frame’s decoration, and for Rococo mirrors, they provide a large space for a central focal point: in the published designs of Chippendale, Johnson, Locke and other designers, we see exuberant and fanciful crestings with pagodas, courting shepherds and shepherdesses and Chinese mandarin figures, as well as animals of a range of species. Dragons, squirrels, birds and fish all make appearances in published mid-18^th century designs,¹ which combined with the mid-eighteenth-century love of singerie motifs makes it no surprise to see a monkey perched atop the present mirrors. 

Singerie, which in French means both the literal ‘monkey house’ in a zoo and figuratively ‘monkeying around’, refers to the playful and satirical artistic depictions of monkeys in anthropomorphised ways. This is often seen on wall decorations, most famously at the Grande Singerie at the chateau de Chantilly: these panels by Christophe Huet date from 1737 and depict monkeys that symbolise the Five Senses, regions of the world and the arts and sciences. The whimsical strain of singerie often concealed a satirical barb on man’s folly, as in Watteau’s ca.1710 painting of The Monkey Sculptor at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Orléans, which would go on to become a singerie stock character mocking the pretensions of the art world. However, monkeys are also used as figures of exuberant, playful energy, which seems to be the intention of André-Charles Boulle and Étienne Levasseur when he incorporated them into the design of their marquetry pieces.² The style's popularity extended well beyond the borders of France: in 1753 Johann Joachim Kändler created a series of Meissen porcelain figures of monkey musicians (the Affenkapelle), and the singerie paintings still survive in the 'Monkey Room' commissioned by in the 1730s by Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough for his residence on Monkey Island in Berkshire. 

¹ For example, a shepherd and shepherdess, a dragon and a squirrel can be seen surmounting mirrors in the Thomas Johnson’s 1758 book of designs, reproduced in Helena Hayward, Thomas Johnson and English Rococo, London, 1964, pl. 4, 8 and 10 respectively.

² For the most famous Boulle example, see table F425 in the Wallace collection, and its numerous later copies such as the one sold at Christie’s London, 23^rd May 2019, lot 628. For a Levasseur example, see the secretaire in the Royal Collection, RCIN 11175.