A Louis XVI Neoclassical Mirror 18th-century Circa 1781

Beautiful neoclassical mirror from the Louis XVI period circa 1781. Elegant neoclassical mirror from the Louis XVI period in sculpted and burnished and gilded linden wood; it is divided into two distinct parts, an upper part, the pediment as well as a lower main enclosing the mirror. The finely openwork trilateral pyramidal pediment is sculpted with a strong overhang, in the round. It is decorated at its zenith with a helmet of a man-at-arms crowned with a plume, in its center emerge the heads of eagles protecting the immaculate royal pavilion and its pennant, in spindle on a bed of oak with foliage as dense than serrated, raised with vegetal rolling up. The main part, the second of rectangular quadrilateral shape encases the ice. This is made up on the periphery of a baguette with double flat profiles, decorated with stripes of ribbons on a first level then with vegetable stripes on the inner periphery. A central acanthus leaf unifies the two parts giving the whole a homogeneous visual. The ice consists of a flat glass plate lined with tin and lead immersed in a bath of mercury in order to dissolve them. Pewter associated with lead then giving this warm and luminous side to the so-called "mercury" mirror. It should be noted the delicacy, the finesse and the nervousness of execution of this mirror which are only equaled by the realism and the depth free from this flatness so common to this type of mirror. Moreover, this mirror filled with martial symbolism, associated with the immaculate flag allows us to attribute a relatively precise dating to it, around 1781. Knowing that, on March 3, 1781, Louis XVI signed an ordinance formalizing the presence of the immaculate white flag to mark the jurisdiction of the king exercised in a foreign land. Proof if any, the famous painting by John Trumbull of the famous battle of Yorktown. Battle where British General Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis surrendered to Count de Rochambeau, illustrious general of the French Expeditionary Force during the American Revolutionary War. Lord Cornwallis, after 21 days of combat, surrendered with a quarter of the British forces, to the Franco-American troops displaying the immaculate white flag and the banner with the thirteen stripes, on October 19, 1781. Dimensions: Height 132.5cm - width 73.2 for the pediment and 71.6cm for the main part - depth 10.5cm at the pediment). Provenance, this mirror sat on the fireplace in the dining room of a neoclassical mansion in the Bordeaux region. It should be noted an old restoration at the bottom of the floor of the back probably due to the humidity of a wall.

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