A LARGE PAIR OF CARVED GILTWOOD MIRRORSIN GEORGE II STYLE, IN THE MANNER OF THOMAS CHIPPENDALE AND THOMAS JOHNSON, PROBABLY LATE 19TH CENTURY178cm high, 95cm wideProvenance:Panshanger, HertfordshireEthel Anne Priscilla Grenfell (née Fane), Baroness Desborough (1867 - 1952); thence by descentLiterature:'Panshanger, Hertfordshire - I, A seat of Lord and Lady Desborough', Country Life, 11th January 1936, pp. 38-43, fig. 11, where the mirrors are illustrated in The Drawing RoomThese mirrors, which are designed in the popular chinoiserie taste of the mid 18th century, take inspiration from the designs of the foremost English cabinet makers of the period such as Thomas Chippendale, Thomas Johnson and Ince & Mayhew. Following the unrivalled success of Thomas Chippendale's 1754 publication 'The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director', contemporaries in turn published their own furniture designs in publications such as Thomas Johnson's 'Collection of Designs' (1758) and Ince & Mayhew's, The Universal System of Household Furniture, (1759-1762). All aforementioned publications include designs for 'looking glasses' and 'pier mirrors' to which the present lot shares many design features. Most notably, see 'Pier Glass Frames' in the first edition of Thomas Chippendale's Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director (1754), plate CXLVII.The combination of the carved 'gothik' tracery, arches and chinoiserie pagoda canopies on the present lot perhaps most closely aligns with the published designs of Ince & Mayhew. See ibid 'Oval Glass frames' (Plate LXXVIII), 'Pier Glasses' (Plate LXXX) and 'Pier Glass & Table' (plate LXXXII) for comparative designs.As shown in Country Life, 11th January 1936, p.42, the mirrors adorned the walls of Panshanger, Hertfordshire, the seat of Lord and Lady Desborough. Panshanger was completed in 1810 and following the demolition of Cole Green Park, served as the new family seat for Peter Leopold Louis Francis Nassau Cowper, 5th Earl Cowper. The estates in Hertfordshire passed through the generations to Francis, 7th Earl Cowper, who without heir, left Panshanger to his favourite niece Ethel Fane, who had been orphaned at just three years old and had grown up under the guidance of her uncle. In 1887, Ettie, as she was known, married William Grenfell, later 1st Baron Desborough. A Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Mary and a celebrated hostess, Lady Desborough made Panshanger her home, and it is possible that the mirrors were commissioned by Lady Desborough during this period. It was in her Drawing Room in 1936 that the current mirrors were photographed for the first of two articles in Country Life on Panshanger. Tragically Lord and Lady Desborough's three sons predeceased Lady Desborough; following her death in 1952, the house and estate was sold and the house subsequently demolished, with the contents dispersed to the family.

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