AL31043
The Sunderland Mirror
A hand carved and antique gilt ‘Sunderland’ wall mirror, the auricular scroll and acanthus leaf carved frame within an ebonised
surround, enclosing a segmented mirror plate with brass Spencer Griffin roundel decoration. Inspired by an English Baroque original.
The Sunderland frame was fashionable over a fairly short period of time between the 1660s and 1680s. This auricular pattern takes
its name from Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland, many of whose pictures at Althorp are framed in the style.
Robert Spencer (1641-1702), one of the most sophisticated owners of Althorp and Charles II’s ambassador to various European
courts commissioned many portraits of contemporary beauties from Lely and Van Dyck which still remain in Althorp today.
Perhaps the ultimate Baroque gilded frame, each one of the frames represented at Althorp is slightly different from the next.
44 x 2 x 72 in (112 x 5 x 183 cm)
84