Page 60 - Pierre Durand Collection Including Chinese Art and Porcelain Sothebys Jan 27 2022

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A GEORGE II GILTWOOD OVERMANTEL MIRROR INSET WITH
CHINESE EXPORT REVERSE MIRROR PAINTINGS
CIRCA 1760
The shaped plates within a gilt foliate scroll frame, the outer panels decorated
with scenes of landscapes, colorfully plumed birds, flora and fauna
58 in. (147.5 cm.) high, 73 in. (185.5 cm.) wide
$100,000-200,000
EXHIBITED:
The Chinese Porcelain Company, Chinese Glass Paintings & Export Porcelain,
New York, 8 October - 9 November, 1996.
LITERATURE:
M. Harris and Sons, A Catalogue and Index of Old Furniture and Works of
Decorative Art From Late Sixteenth Century - Early Nineteenth Century, Pt. II,
London, 1938, p. 194, pl. XIII 4.
The Chinese Porcelain Company, Chinese Glass Paintings & Export Porcelain,
New York, 8 October - 9 November, 1996, p. 26, no. 9.
This monumental mirror is remarkable not only for its unusually large scale
but equally for its elaborate scene painting within a beautifully drawn
giltwood frame. The frame follows the designs of London's pre-eminent
cabinet-makers such as John Linnell or Thomas Chippendale. The pairing
of reverse painted mirror glass with flat glass represents the ingenuity and
collaboration between Chinese and British artists of the mid-18th century.
THE ART OF CHINESE MIRROR PAINTING

The practice of painting on mirrors developed in China after 1715 when
the Jesuit missionary Father Castiglione arrived in Beijing. He found favor
with the Emperors Yongzheng and Qianlong and was entrusted with the
decoration of the Imperial Garden in Beijing. He learned to paint in oil on
glass, a technique that was already practiced in Europe but which was
unknown in China in 1715. Chinese artists, already expert in painting and
calligraphy, took up the practice, tracing the outlines of their designs on the
back of the plate and, using a special steel implement, scraping away the
mirror backing to reveal glass that could then be painted. Glass paintings
were made almost entirely for export, fueled by the mania in Europe for
all things Chinese. Although glass vessels had long been made in China,
the production of flat glass was not accomplished until the 19th century.
Even in the Imperial glass workshops, set up in Beijing in 1696 under the
supervision of the Bavarian Jesuit Kilian Stumpf, window glass or mirrored
glass was not successfully produced. As a result, from the middle of the 18th
century onwards, when reverse glass painting was already popular in Europe,
sheets of both clear and mirrored glass were sent to Canton from Europe.
They most often depicted bucolic landscapes, frequently with sumptuously
dressed Chinese figures at leisurely pursuits. Once in Europe the best were
often placed in elaborate giltwood Chippendale or Chinoiserie frames.

Related examples of overmantel mirrors incorporating Chinese mirror
paintings include one sold Christie’s, New York, 21 January 1999, lot 557
($85,000) attributed to William and John Linnell and dated from 1755. For
another example that features similarly beautiful reverse-painted panels
dated from 1765 and previously in the collection of the Hon. Mrs. George
Keppel see Christie’s, New York, 18-19 April 2012, lot 57 ($290,500) and
subsequently sold Christie's, London, 7 July 2016, lot 322 (£194,500).