A Régence carved giltwood wall mirror, circa 1720

Perrin Antiquités, Paris, 22 March 1995.

Mirrors were decorative items of great luxury in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries due to the demanding craftsmanship and high expense involved in creating them. Part of Jean-Baptiste Colbert’s mercantilist cultural policy included the foundation of a French Manufacture royale de glaces de miroirs to wean France off Venetian imports of mirror glass. The factory quickly developed into one of the most significant in Europe, supplying the emblematic mirrors for Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors in 1678. Mirrors became increasingly popular during the Louis XIV period, and during the Régence that followed, pier mirrors began to incorporate a large integral arch into the main mirror itself – previously, a carved crest was treated as a separate element of the design. A typical form that evolves in the Régence is an arched mirror with scrolled and carved decoration at the mid- and bottom corners, frequently featuring scrolls issuing leaves as in the present lot. There are frequent examples of this general form at auction, including recently at Replica Shoes ’s New York, 18^th October, lot 368, in the Hotel Lambert sale at Replica Shoes ’s Paris, 13^th October 2022, lot 426 and at Replica Shoes ’s Paris, 7^th July 2022, lot 104.