Provenance: Château de Wailly (Built around 1640, and partially destroyed during the French Revolution, the Château de Wailly was used by General Montgomery, commander and chief of the British Army, as a headquarters during the liberation of France in World War Two)

Despite an overall austerity, the single undivided pane of glass would have been an extravagant statement around the year 1800. Fabrication techniques for glass made it such that contiguous pieces of this height were very rare. The claw feet and angular frame are typical of the early Napoleonic period. Traces of green lacquer that remain, a directorate period color, suggest the mirror could even date from the late 1790s. Although the mirror was apparently used as hallway decoration, it is definitely a personal piece, having surely been used daily for a man’s dressing for before having been placed in the upper hallway of the chateau de Wailly. The mahogany veneers were sun-bleached from having spent so much time by the window and have been re-waxed to restore the wood to a richer color. Minor cosmetic repairs appear to have been done long ago on one foot, but otherwise the cheval glass is in a near original state of conservation.

H: 73 inches. L: 37 inches. D: 23 inches.

Myers & Monroe, LLC