GEORGE III GILT WOOD PIER MIRROR, BY JAMES THOMPSON OF EDINBURGH
CIRCA 1767
£10,710
Auction: Select Property from Penicuik House, Midlothian - 27th March 2024 at 10am
Description
the divided mirror plate within a frame of foliate scrolls, hung with swags and intertwined ornamentation, a shell motif to the apron below, flanked by shaped margin plates
Dimensions
249cm high, 124cm wide
Provenance
Sir James Clerk, 3rd Baronet of Penicuik (1709 – 1782), Penicuik House, Midlothian. Thence by descent
Footnote
Note: The present lot, and the other pier mirror in the sale, lot 17, were made by the Edinburgh gilder and carver John Thomson and recorded in the Penicuik House ledgers in 1770. Thomson first appears in the journal on 16th September 1767 where he is paid £8 ‘by the hands of Mr Blaikie to Accompt’ and makes his final appearance in an entry on 1 December, 1773 where he is paid £144: 1: 8 ‘for Carving picture frames and gilding in Dining room’. In total he was paid £410 for his work at Penicuik. Listed as the ‘Carved Peir frame for Drawing Room’, it cost £18: 9: 10 for the frame with additional costs of £7:-:- for gilding and burnishing, £6:7:3. Interestingly, notations to the invoice state that Sir James provided glass for the margin plates providing a deduction of £2:2:6 from the total cost. Thomson is also credited with supplying frames and mirrors to Arniston House for Robert Dundas, Hopetoun House for the Earl of Hopetoun, and Drumlanrig Castle for the Duke of Buccleuch.
Literature: Francis Bamford, “Plenishings at Penicuik House”, Country Life, 7 August, 1975, pgs. 332-334