Although describing it as in the ‘Glasgow Style’, specialist Nick Burns said that the 2ft 3in by 22in (69 x 55cm) c.1900 mirror was “certainly not the work of any of the Glasgow Girls”, a group responsible for the majority output of West Coast metalware during this period.
However, there was talk at the viewing of it being the work of Talwin Morris – the art manager for Glasgow-based publishers Blackie and Son – because of Morris’s penchant for mirrors with similar peacock motifs. Whether this speculation informed the bidding was unclear, but the mirror was eventually sold to a Glasgow collector, underbid by the US trade, at £5400 against an estimate of £500-700.
The top prices of the Decorative Arts sale were bid by American dealers for two Donegal carpets designed by Charles Voysey for Liberty & Co. – a bid of £12,000 taking the 17ft 81/2in by 12ft 91/2in (5.40m x 3.90m) example and £10,000 sufficient for the smaller, 14ft 3in by 12ft 1in (4.32 x 3.69m) carpet.
Reflections on a Glasgow mirror at ten times estimate
Unsigned Arts & Crafts metalwork has lately been getting the sort of high prices normally reserved for attributable material and this copper-mounted mirror, right, was no exception – the sleeper of Bonhams’ (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) sale of Decorative Arts at Glasgow School of Arts on November 28.
