A pair of fine and well-proportioned George I gilded pier glasses attributed to John Belchier, each with divided and beveled plates, set within strapwork-carved, gadrooned and gilded frames. The frames carved with cascading foliate motifs and eagles, crested with a double-scroll flourish. The cresting on a similarly carved ground and centred by a winged putto surmounted by a dolphin pediment.

John Belchier

It is highly likely that these mirrors were made by John Belchier, as they compare closely to a number of his commissions. They are nearly identical to two pier glasses supplied by Belchier to John Meller at Erddig in Denbighshire, Wales in 1723 and 1726 (Figure 1). The 1723 mirror bears the same shallow-relief strapwork and the 1726 mirror identical bold, inward-curving scrolls that spill onto the plate, similar gadrooning and the same cascading carved foliage that issues eagles’ heads. Both mirrors have stepped upper frames and the same overall form and scale as the present pair.

The scrolls that appear on the 1726 mirror and the present examples appear on other mirrors attributed to Belchier. Among them is an example in the Untermyer Collection, Metropolitan Museum, New York and another formerly in the collection of Gerald Hochschild and subsequently with Mallett & Son.

Established at ‘The Sun’ in St Paul’s Churchyard, London, John Belchier was a leading glass-smith of his day. In addition to the mirrors, he produced a pair of girandoles with glass arms for Erddig and a glass-topped table bearing John Meller’s arms. During the same period as this commission, he supplied glasses to St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Belchier was also an eminent cabinetmaker. He is renowned for his japanned furniture and during the 1730s received commissions from the Purefoy family at Shalston, Buckinghamshire and Sir Roger Hill (d. 1729) of Denham Place. Other than the glasswork for Erddig, he produced a celebrated suite of gilt- and silver-gesso furniture, of which the most important piece was the State Bed, purchased in 1720. The eagles’ heads on the tester of the bed are echoed by the mirrors later purchased in 1723 and 1726.

Provenance

The dolphin naiant in the pediments of these mirrors is the heraldic symbol of the Godolphins of Rialton and Helston, Cornwall, suggesting that the mirrors were commissioned by a member of the Godolphin family, possibly Francis, 2nd Earl of Godolphin (1678-1766) who was a prominent politician and courtier during the lifetime of Belchier. He served as both an MP and later a Peer and Lord of the Bedchamber to both George I and George II, and in 1733 was appointed Governor of the Scilly Islands. Prominent in London social circles and a frequent resident in the capital, Godolphin will have been familiar with the most accomplished and fashionable cabinetmakers in the city at that time.

His uncle, Dr Henry Godolphin, was Dean of St. Paul’s where Belchier supplied glasses and his workshop was located, and it is possible that through this connection he commissioned this wonderful pair of mirrors.

The dolphin had been a symbol of the family since at least the sixteenth century, as a reference to both the family’s name and position as substantial landowners in coastal Cornwall. A dolphin naiant as it appears in the mirrors’ crests is first seen in the arms (Figure 3) of the 2nd Earl’s father, Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl (1645-1712), and a pair of carved and parcel gilt painted wooden dolphins naiant dating from the sixteenth century, thought to have originally served as helmet crests for Sir William Godolphin (c.1518–70), are in the collection of Godolphin House, Helston, Cornwall (National Trust).