A Large Napoleon III Carved Giltwood & Gesso Mirror

Description

A Large Napoleon III Carved Giltwood & Gesso Mirror.

Grand in size and decoration, this impressive Napoleon III period overmantel mirror is designed in the Louis XVI style with an arched pediment centred by an elaborate ribbon tied cresting flanked by berried laurel branches and swags. The moulded frame is finely carved with ribbon tied olive branches and a beaded inner border.

The mirror plate clear and useable and retaining its original backboards.

France, Circa 1870.

The Napoleon III style, also known as Second Empire style, is distinguished by an eclectic style of architecture and decorative arts which revisited the most opulent styles from the past and flourished during the reign of Emperor Napoleon III in France (1852–1871). Accomplished craftsmen created their own unique versions inspired by a taste for ‘l’historicism’, and major architectural and interior schemes such as the Opéra Garnier (1862–1871) in Paris, had an important and lasting influence on architecture and decoration in the rest of Europe and the United States.