Original text : (Automatic translation)
A very fine pair of George I carved gilt gesso pier mirrors with shaped arch plate,
within leaf-tip, flowerhead, C-scroll, pendant and strapwork-carved corbelled sides,
on a punched ground, the cresting with Prince of Wales plumes above a cherub
mask flanked by eagle's heads and scrolls, and the shaped apron centring on putto
mask with scrolling leaves. The mirror frames reinstated with a rare set of 4mm glass plates with their original mercury silvering, and bevelled and shaped to the original design.
Attributed to John Belchier.


PROVENANCE
Almost certainly supplied to Sir Roger Hill (d.1729) for Denham Place, Buckinghamshire.
Possibly sold to Francis Lenygon circa 1914 by Colonel Way.
Acquired by Lord and Lady Chesterfield for Beningborough Hall, York after 1917.
Sold Curtis & Henson, 12 June 1958, Beningborough Hall, The important Contents of the Mansion (Lot 634 and 636)
Desmond Fitz-Gerald, ‘A New Yorker's Unusual Collection, Apollo Magazine, March 1967, Vol. LXXXV, 61, p. 162, pl. 11
Sold The Benjamin Sonnenburg Collection, Sothebys Park Bernet, New York, 5-9 June 1979, lot 1647 (shown with single long replacement plates).
Sold Christie's New York, 8 April 2004, lot 95.

John Belchier was believed to have been of Huguenot origin, as his trade label may suggest. He was recorded working as a cabinet maker at The Sun located in St. Pauls ChurchYard in 1717 and is believed to have maintained the workshop until his death at the age of 70 in 1753.There are several recorded trade labels with his name spelt either Belchier or Bel-Chier together with his work shop label of an ornamental Sun. Belchier promoted himself on printed labels as a maker of ‘fine peer and Chimney-Glasses, and Glass Sconces, Likewise all Cabinet Makers Goods.'