Wrought iron core and back wooden plates; rock crystal; embossed, chiselled and gilt copper; mirrors; reverse side covered with green-coloured cloth.
H. 142 cm. (56 in.); W. 140 cm. (55 ¼ in.).
PROVENANCE: collection of Baron Alphonse de Rothschild (1827-1905), in the “salon rouge” of the hôtel (townhouse) Saint-Florentin in Paris; collection of Baron Édouard de Rothschild (1868-1949); collection of Baron Guy de Rothschild (1909-2007) and his wife, Marie-Hélène (1927-1996), née Van Zuylen Van Nyevelt Van de Haar, in the hôtel Lambert in Paris; then by descent, the Rothschild family collection up to the present day.
SOURCE: The Rothschild Archive, London, Inventaire après le décès de Monsieur le Baron Alphonse de Rothschild, A. Cottin, Notary, 16th October 1905: “Hôtel Saint-Florentin, Salon Rouge, ‘Venetian crystal mirror mounted in bronze – estimated value three hundred francs”’.
LITERATURE: Christiane de Nicolay-Mazery, Visites privées, hôtels particuliers de Paris, Paris, 1999, p. 23.
This extraordinary octagonal Venetian mirror, in rock crystal and embossed, chased and gilt copper, was part of the collection of Baron Alphonse de Rothschild (1827-1905), adorning the “salon rouge” of his hôtel (townhouse) at 2 rue Saint-Florentin, Paris. Dated from the second third of the 17th century, this mirror, with its particularly impressive dimensions, is characteristic of the most luxurious Venetian productions in that field. This very rare mirror is identical to a small corpus of Venetian mirrors of the same model that were acquired by the Spanish court at the same time period. Those mirrors were offered as gift contributions from the monarch and the great nobility of the kingdom to religious institutions.
