A RARE OVAL GILTWOOD MIRROR ALMOST CERTAINLY BY J.C. LILLIE

August 4 2009, 4:18pm

Danish. Circa 1790. The present mirror is the work of the celebrated Danish cabinet maker and designer J.C. Lillie (1760 - 1827). The first incumbent of the official post of Architect and Designer to the Danish Court from 1790, Lillie numbered among his patrons royalty and members of the country's leading aristocratic families. A mirror of almost identical design to the present piece was supplied by Lillie to Liselund, the romantic country house built by the Prefect of Møns Antoine de la Calamette in 1792.

Enjoying a long career at the heart of Danish fashionable society, Lillie's most prestigious commissions included decorating the suite of Crown Prince Frederik and Princess Marie on the occasion of their marriage in 1790. The papers of the Lord High Steward, C.F. Numsen, record that his work was highly esteemed by the royal family, he himself writing in praising terms of Lillie's 'taste displayed in his drawings' and 'in the craftsmanship of his furniture'.6