English. Circa 1755. The present mirror provides a rare and exciting example of furniture which can be directly related to the renowned designer and carver Thomas Johnson (1714 - c.1778). The mirror is almost identical to a drawing by Johnson which appeared as part of plate 2 in his celebrated and highly influential Collection of Designs. Given the quality of his designs, it is somewhat surprising that, as of yet, no documented pieces firmly attributable to Johnson himself have come to light. Johnson's work represents the most adventurous expression of the Rococo taste by an English designer, conceived as the style was reaching its apogee in England. The present piece belongs to a small and elite group of English rococo mirrors which excel in their interpretation of the style.

English. Circa 1720. This magnificent mirror previously formed part of the decoration of the State Bedroom at Temple Newsam house in Yorkshire. Temple Newsam is regarded as one of the most celebrated historic houses in England due, in part, to the survival of the early seventeenth-century building, but also to the magnificent collection of furniture belonging to Leeds City Art Galleries which is now housed there. This particular mirror also demonstrates the rising influence of the Palladian style of classicism in England in the first three decades of the eighteenth century. Based on a fascination with the work of the Italian architect Andrea Palladio amongst a select group of English cognoscenti, such as Lord Burlington and the architect William Kent, Palladianism employed a range of classical forms to achieve a lavish yet restrained decorative effect.

English. Late 17th Century. Of oak. The circular sunken face of the panel centred by a carved sun symbol mask radiating bevelled and shaped rayss and surrounded by applied carved stars. To the outer edge of the circle are set six winged angel masks. All within a moulded square integral frame.

Oil on canvas. Signed and dated 'R.S. 1804' (lower right). The featured ship is the Alfred, shown in three positions, thought to be off the Mersey, Liverpool.

Oil on canvas. The painting set in a molded frame.

Of mahogany. The cart section with shaped sides, lined with a detachable copper tray, is fronted by a carved head of a horse. The whole raised on finely turned concentric wheels each pair joined by an axel and held with split steel pins.

Of mahogany. The oval wine cooler with upholstered top opening to a divided interior, set to the side with paired faux ring handles, centred to the front with mask of Jupiter, the whole raised on two outswept plinth feet.

English. Circa 1820. Of mahogany and inlaid boxwood. The demi-lune top with cross-banded border and inlaid stringing above a shaped undermould above two shelves edged with boxwood stringing divided by tapering posts inlaid with boxwood panels, edged with stringing and continuing to form four tapering legs, each leg terminating in a square tapering foot.

English. Circa 1825. Of stained deal and painted iron. The iron top rail surmounted by a row of stylised foliate cusps, the seat flanked by the uprights in the form of clustered columns, the pierced tracery back, the shaped seat above the rail carved with a band of quatrefoil decoration, the whole raised on four legs, each leg in the form of a cluster column raised on an octagonal plinth foot.

English. Circa 1770. Of giltwood. The curved oval backs with carved frame raised on foliate carved supports above a shaped seat rail, with serpentine frame, the curving arm rests with scrolling handles on carved uprights, the whole raised on four cabriole legs.

English. Circa 1755. Of mahogany, each with arched back filled with tubular bars. The well drawn outswept arms raised on profoundly incurved supports. The dished solid mahogany seat above four square legs, the front slightly curved and with shaped ears, all united by bar stretchers and raised on four original leather wheeled brass castors.

Probably English. Second Quarter of the 19th Century. Of deal decorated with black lacquer and polychrome decoration. The elaborately fretted oval frame surrounding an original bevelled mirror plate with lacquered vignettes depicting deities and infants examining carp. The whole surmounted by a fantastical grisaille mask.

English. Circa 1810. One of the earliest and best-known depictions of a convex mirror occurs in the Arnolfini Wedding Portrait by Jan Van Eyck’s 1434 (National Gallery, London). To make a convex plate at this early date probably involved use of the blown method, an extremely skilled and costly process that made such pieces the preserve of the very wealthy. It was not until the latter part of the eighteenth century that such mirror plates could be made in a mold. The present pair of mirrors epitomizes Regency decoration, particularly in the eagles that surmount each. The eagle was a symbol of might and triumph, and “is often represented on Regency convex mirror frames grasping a chain in its mouth. The eagle sits above a crossed bough of sprigs of oak leaves and acorns, which are repeated among other foliate decoration in the apron. The oak, adopted as the national tree of England, is a symbol of virtue, strength and endurance.

Of limewood with original green-painted and faux porphyry decoration. Each surmounted by a circular gadrooned top above a shaped stem with reeded central section and anthemion decoration raised on four winged female figures and a pylon shaped faux porphyry base decorated to each side with a wreath and crossed poles with acorn finials, the whole raised on four bold paw feet and a square faux porphyry plinth with canted corners. These exceptionally sophisticated pair of torcheres are identical to a single example in the Victoria and Albert Museum. They originally formed part of the collection of the Earl of Lascelles, at the great Yorkshire mansion, Harewood House, built between 1759 and 1771 by a combination of the architects John Carr and Robert Adam.

Of gilt brass. The corona cast with lotus leaves above a canopy of acanthus leaves, the body, suspended on five supports, each with acanthine decoration, the five foliate arms, each arm terminating in a foliate drip-pan and nozzle, the whole centered by five oil reservoirs, each in the form of a Grecian urn, the whole terminating below in a lotus leaf final.

Of walnut ebony and bone. The octagonal top with raised rim inlaid with eight-pointed star of ebony and bone, the pierced barley twist stem centred with a turned coller, the stem set on a polygonal base with moulded rim raised on three ebonised bun feet. In his book English Furniture 1660-1714: From Charles II to Queen Anne, Adam Bowett illustrates a candlestand of strikingly similar form to the present examples, pointing out the rarity of the pierced double-bind turning. The close similarity of the pieces is not limited to the form and construction of the stem, but also extends to the shaped and inlaid base raised on bun feet and the tray to the top.

English. Circa 1820. Of giltwood. The whole surmounted by a carved giltwood crane surrounded by foliage and above a carved pineapple, the rectangular frame carved as faux bamboo.