Mirror
attributed to Gerrit Jensen (fl.c.1680 – London 1715)
Category
Mirrors
Date
1672 - 1683
Materials
Veneered with marquetry of ebony, ebonised wood, fruitwood, ivory and stained horn
Measurements
160 x 107 x 50 cm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Ham House, Surrey
NT 1139551
Summary
Mirror, circa 1675, veneered with floral marquetry including ivory and stained horn, almost certainly by Gerrit Jensen. The convex frame decorated with scrolling acanthus leaves, each side centred by a laurel wreath with a bird, the top with a shaped cresting depicting a medallion portrait of a Roman emperor within a laurel wreath surmounted by a ducal coronet. This mirror was possibly made en suite with the side table veneered with similar marquetry (NT 1139568) as in England a set of marquetry furniture often comprised a "looking glass". A very close example, almost certainly supplied by Jensen, is in the Royal Collection. Gerrit Jensen was supplier of veneered furniture to the Duke and Duchess of Lauderdale as per records of payments from May 1672 until October 1683. Two comparable marquetry tables at Ham are also thought to be his work (NT1140043, NT 1139923), as well as a cabinet (NT 1140106). Gerrit Jensen most probably came from Holland and settled in London before 1667. He is known to have supplied fine marquetry furniture to the court and prestigious patrons from the 1680s. In 1670s floral marquetry was a novelty and this furniture at Ham suggests that floral marquetry was the speciality with which Jensen conquered the London clientele a few years later. Most likely a Dutch-born cabinet maker, he would have brought the art of floral marquetry with him, introducing this technique in England, such as Pierre Gole (c.1620-1685) in Paris and Leonardo van der Vinne (active c.1659-1713) in Florence.
Provenance
Mirror tentatively identified with an entry in the 1683 inventory of Ham House. Acquired in 1948 by HM Government when Sir Lyonel, 4th Bt (1854 – 1952) and Sir Cecil Tollemache, 5th Bt (1886 – 1969) presented Ham House to the National Trust, and entrusted to the care of the Victoria & Albert Museum, until 1990, when returned to the care of the National Trust, and to which ownership was transferred in 2002.
Makers and roles
attributed to Gerrit Jensen (fl.c.1680 – London 1715), cabinetmaker
References
Baarsen 2013: Reinier Baarsen, 'Seventeenth-Century European Cabinet-Making at Ham House' in Christopher Rowell (ed.), Ham House 400 Years of Collecting and Patronage, Yale, 2013, pp.194-203