{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O11207"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O11207/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AM7515/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AM7515/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AM7515","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AM7511","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AM7514","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AM7513","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AM7512","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AP1578","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2019LK4189","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O11207/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O11207","accessionNumber":"W.8-1960","objectType":"Mirror","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"<b>Object Type</b><br>From the late 17th century, it became customary to fix a mirror on each pier wall separating the windows to reflect the light of the candles (supported by matching candlestands). The mirror was often accompanied by a matching table, as with this example.<br><br><b>People</b><br>This mirror was made for John, 2nd Earl Poulett (1708-1764), for the Tapestry Room at Hinton House, Hinton St George, Somerset. The Mr Wood who was paid for 15 hours work on the mirror may be Alexander or Stephen Wood, both of whom worked in London's Southwark district as looking-glass makers in the 1720s.<br><br><b>Design & Designing</b><br>The design of the mirror was inspired by contemporary French prints engraved by Jacques-Gabriel Huquier (1695-1772) after Jacques de Lajoue (1687-1761) which were published in 1737 as <i>Livres de Bordures d'ecrans … la Chinois</i>. Similar scroll-caryatid figures feature in Matthias Lock's own designs for <i>Six Sconces</i> published in 1744. The original sketch for this mirror shows that the joint between the panels of mirror glass was concealed by garlands of flowers suspended from the rabbit's head above. The sketch is inscribed '138 Days in all / Lock 20 / Lomar 40 / Wood 15 / Loo 14 the other by &c / Charged for Carving £34 10s 0d / for Joyneurs & stuf £1 15s od / A Large Sconc in the Taptstrey Roome'.","physicalDescription":"Mirror, carved, gilded wood, extremely ornate.  Bold carved and gilded wood mirror surmounted by a tasselled canopy over a shell and hare head with C-scroll and acanthus leaf motif on either side. The right hand side bears a female caryatid (Ceres or Proserpine possibly) crowned with a bountiful fruit basket. Her body is based on an S-scroll decorated with leaves which looks not unlike a harp. Beneath her is a C-scroll quiver full of hunting weapons which point out of the mirror. This turns into clam shell detailing (facing inwards) in which we see a sunflower from the centre of which leaps a hound. The external, bottom corner both have a dolphin motif. At the centre base of the mirror is the floral and feathered nest of two mythical birds who are protecting their eggs. The left side of the mirror has the same hound and sunflower motif leading up to the same quiver of hunting weapons but above this the S-scroll becomes an atlantes (a male caryatid). He wears an acorn bell on a chain and has a collar of acanthus on a costume of leaves. He is bearded and has a leaf head-dress (possibly Pan or the Green Man). Again he is surmounted by a bountiful fruit basket.\r\n\r\nAnalysis of paint and gilding layer stratification on this pier glass and the pier table, W.35-1964, carried out by Pascale Patris, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, December 2003; report in curatorial file for W.8-1960","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Lock, Matthias","id":"A8622"},"association":{"text":"designer and maker","id":"x34662"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"pine","id":"AAT12620"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"},{"text":"gilding","id":"AAT53789"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Carved and gilded pine","categories":[{"text":"Images Online","id":"THES48937"},{"text":"Woodwork","id":"THES48877"},{"text":"British Galleries","id":"THES48985"},{"text":"Household objects","id":"THES48939"},{"text":"Mirrors","id":"THES277510"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2006AM7515","2006AM7511","2006AM7514","2006AM7513","2006AM7512","2006AP1578","2019LK4189"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"53B (VA)","id":"THES49256"},"free":"","case":"WW","shelf":"","box":"5"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Pier glass","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1745","earliest":"1740-01-01","latest":"1749-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Mrs F. E. Rhodes","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"261.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"127","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"135 kg\nDimensions checked: Registered Description; 18/01/1999 by MH\n\nWeight in crate 186kg, out of crate approx. 135kg.","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Designed and made in London by the designer and carver Matthias Lock (born in London, about 1710, died there in 1765) for Hinton House, Hinton St George, Somerset, for John Poulett, 2nd Earl Poulett (1708-1764, inherited 1743).  The mirror was part of a set with a table (V&amp;A W.35-1964) and two candlestands (now in a private collection).  Drawings for the mirror, table and candlestands are also in the collection of the V&amp;A (inv. nos. 2587, 2602 and 2588).  Annotations on the drawing of the mirror record that it took 138 days to make, with Matthias Lock working on it for 20 of those days. It cost £35. 5. 0.  The drawing also records that the mirror and accompanying pieces were made for the Tapestry Room.  Tapestries were considered the most luxurious of hangings for a drawing room, so this would have been for the grandest room in the house.  Hinton House was originaly built in the medieval period, enlarged in the early 16th century and remodelled in the Palladian style by the architect Matthew Brettingham (1699-1769) for the 2nd Earl in the middle years of the 18th century. \n\nThese furnishings were, however, in a strongly Rococo style, with playfully naturalistic figures of animals and birds, and two flanking figures of a Man and Woman of the Woods, above trophies of rustic pipes and hunting weapons, with the head of a hound appearing from a scroll on the lower edge. The mirror is clearly intended to celebrate the fruitfulness of nature and the pleasures of rustic life. The original drawing for the mirror showed that it was designed with figures of birds on the top corners, and with a festoon of flowers hanging down and parting to each side to cover the join in the two mirror plates.  There is evidence that both these elements were originally in place but have been lost. \n\nHinton House was sold up in 1968 and it contents dispersed. The mirror was purchased from Mallett &amp; Sons, London for £1900 (Registered file 60/1353).\n\nA pier-glass of closely similar style, attributed to Matthias Lock, was sold by Sotheby's, 23 May 1980, lot 151.  Not provenance was offered with that piece, or any evidence of Lock's involvement, other than stylisitc similarity to the V&amp;A glass. ","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Pier Glass, from Hinton House,des. M.Lock, English, 1745","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Victoria &amp; Albert Museum, <i>Rococo. Art and Design in Hogarth's England</i>, catalogue of and exhibition held 16 May to 30 September 1984. London, Trefoil Books, 1984, p. 165, catalogue number L12."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"J.F. Hayward, 'Furniture Designed and Carved by Matthias Lock at Hinton House, Somerset', <i>Connoisseur</i>, 1960, vol. CXLVI, pp. 284-286"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Coleridge, Anthony, <i>Chippendale Furniture</i>, London, Faber &amp; Faber, 1968, fig. 91."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Ceres","id":"N285"},{"text":"Proserpine","id":"N342"},{"text":"Pan","id":"N156"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"caryatids","id":"AAT1583"},{"text":"atlantes","id":"AAT1574"},{"text":"shells","id":"x30562"},{"text":"hare","id":"x30063"},{"text":"C-scrolls","id":"AAT10096"},{"text":"S-scrolls","id":"AAT10106"},{"text":"fruit","id":"AAT11868"},{"text":"acanthus","id":"AAT164902"},{"text":"quivers","id":"AAT36930"},{"text":"weapons","id":"AAT36926"},{"text":"flowers (plants)","id":"AAT132399"},{"text":"dog (animal)","id":"x30186"},{"text":"dolphin (animal)","id":"x30140"},{"text":"birds","id":"x35043"}],"contentConcepts":[{"text":"classicism","id":"AAT56513"}],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Label(1968):-\r\nMIRROR AND SIDE TABLE.\r\nCarved wood, bronzed and gilded, the top of the table veneered\r\nin onyx.\r\nEnglish; mid-eighteenth century.\r\nFrom the Tapestry Room at Hinton House, Somerset and designed\r\nby Matthew Lock for the aebond Earl Poulett. The original sketch\r\nby Lock for the tablektis in the Museum and shows that it took\r\neighty-nine days to make and cost £22-5s-5d for the joiner and\r\n£21 far the carving. Lock worked on it for fifteen days, the\r\nremainder being done by his assistants.The design of the\r\nmirror shows that it :,took one hundred and thirty eight daysL;\r\nwork and oast £36-5s, Lock working on it for twenty days.\r\nLock:was exceptoinally capable draughtsman who understood the\r\nRococo idiom more fully than any other English furniture\r\ndesigner","date":{"text":"1968","earliest":"1968-01-01","latest":"1968-12-31"}},{"text":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null}},{"text":"W.8-1960 and W.35-1964\r\n\r\nMIRROR AND SIDE-TABLE\r\nENGLISH; about 1745\r\nCarved wood, bronzed and gilded, the top of the table veneered with onyx\r\n\r\nFrom the Tapestry Room at Hinton House, Somerset, and designed by Matthias Lock for the second Earl Poulett.  The original design (shown alongside) shows that it took eighty-nine days to make the table, and cost £22 - 5s - 5d for the joiner and £21 for the carving.  Lock worked on it for fifteen days, the remainder being done by his assistants.  The design for the mirror shows that it took one hundred and thirty days' work and cost £36 - 5s; Lock worked on it for twenty days.  Lock was an exceptionally capable draughtsman who understood the Rococo idiom more fully than any other English furniture designer.\r\n\r\nThe table was given by Mrs. F.E. Rhodes.","date":{"text":"pre October 2000","earliest":null,"latest":"2000-09-30"}},{"text":"British Galleries:\r\nMatthias Lock designed this mirror and table as a set with two candlestands, to go between a pair of windows. Such a set was a traditional form but Lock added newly fashionable motifs. The mirror  was still symmetrical and large in scale, showing little of the lightness and asymmetry of Rococo.","date":{"text":"27/03/2003","earliest":"2003-03-27","latest":"2003-03-27"}}],"partNumbers":["W.8-1960"],"accessionNumberNum":"8","accessionNumberPrefix":"W","accessionYear":1960,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"RF number","id":"THES57673"},"number":"1960/1353"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LM9389","2019LN0532","2019LR0400","2019LP4088","2019LV6344"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-05-27","recordCreationDate":"1999-06-10","availableToBook":false}}