Height: 53.00 in (134.62 cm)
Width: 25.00 in (63.5 cm)
This elaborately carved giltwood girandole relates closely to the designs of Thomas Chippendale and his contemporary Thomas Johnson. Chippendale designed and supplied a pair of girandoles in 1759 to the Earl of Dumfries for the Dining Room of Dumfries House, which were designed to embellish the chimneypiece and flank the overmantel portrait of the 5th Earl of Dumfries by Thomas Hudson. This design is published on plate CLXXVIII of the The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director of 1762 with slight modifications to the cresting. The mirrors incorporate both rococo and chinoiserie themes with the fantastic ho-ho birds on the cresting.
Chippendale supplied a similar pair of girandoles to Woodcote Park, Surrey which feature the asymmetrical silhouette and ho-ho bird perched on the cresting.
Chippendale is known to have supplied a number of girandoles to prominent patrons, including documented examples to Mersham-le-Hatch for Sir Edward Knatchbull, Nostell Priory for Sir Rowland Winn, and Harewood House for Edwin Lascelles.
For related designs:
Thomas Chippendale, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director, 1762, 3rd ed., pl. CLXXVIII