Federal Giltwood Mirror with Reverse-painted Transom, Paul Cermenati and G. Monfrino, Boston, Ma...

Federal Giltwood Mirror with Reverse-painted Transom, Paul Cermenati and G. Monfrino, Boston, Massachusetts, 1806. Deep overhanging cornice supporting pendant ball turnings, the front corners projecting to conform with stylized acanthus capitals over reeded colonnette stiles, continuing to blocked corners at bottom edge, connected by a bead-carved and molded rail, the silvered looking glass framed below transom glass painted with scene of ships in an isolated harbor, surrounded by painted and gilt oval frame on a pale pink painted ground, the pine backboard retaining paper label of Cermenati & Monfrino, 'Carvers, Gilders, Picture Frame and Looking Glass Manufacturers' at 2 State Street, Boston, as well as an old newspaper fragment reporting the wreck of merchant ship Thomas Chalkley near Charleston, South Carolina, in 1806, 60cm wide, 10cm deep, 99cm high (24in wide, 4in deep, 39in high). Footnotes: Provenance The collection of Eric van Rooy. Nathan Liverant & Son, Colchester, Connecticut, 9 October 2005. Literature A similar labeled Empire looking glass is in the Mabel Brady Garvan Collection (acc. 1930.2725A); see David L. Barquist, American Tables and Looking Glasses (New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), cat. no. 182. For another illustrated reference to the paper label, see Herbert F. Schiffer, The Mirror Book (Exton: Schiffer Publishing, 1983), fig. 422, p. 165. Coincidentally, the cargo aboard the ship Thomas Chalkley included 230 Windsor chairs destined for St. Thomas, which were unloaded and sold off in distress at Charleston; see Bradford L. Rauschenberg, 'Documentary Evidence for Furniture Forms and Terminology in Charleston, South Carolina, 1670-1820' Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts, 2013. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing