ATTRIBUÉ À BURCHARD PRECHT (1651-1738) (Sculpteur... Lot 30

ATTRIBUÉ À BURCHARD PRECHT (1651-1738) (Sculpteur à la Cour de Suède en 1682) Gilt bronze, gold lead and glass H. 76 cm, W. 59 cm Missing This rectangular mirror has a glass frame underlined by a double frieze of gilt bronze eggs with spandrels richly enhanced with openwork palmettes. It is surmounted by a pediment with a double frame of ice with a strong indentation punctuated with flowers and is topped by a floral vase. On the shoulders are busts in the antique style. This work is characteristic of the achievements of Burchard Precht and his son Gustav. Originally from Bremen in Germany, Burchard settled in Stockholm in 1674 and supplied the furnishings for Drottningholm Palace. In 1682, he was appointed court sculptor to Charles XI and was commissioned by the latter to accompany the court architect, Nicodemus Ticino, to Rome and Paris in 1687 to study the new Baroque aesthetic concepts for the construction of the New Royal Palace in Stockholm. His son Gustav (1698-1763) continued his work and was also very successful. The general aspect of this mirror seems to be directly inspired by the French parecloses models distributed throughout Europe by means of collections of ornamentalists, such as the Nouveau Livre d'ornemens, pour l'utilité des Sculpteurs et Orfèvres by Daniel Marot, published around 1700, or the numerous drawings and engravings by Jean I Bérain. The use of gilded lead for the ornamentation, the double glass frames as well as the motifs, fruit baskets and busts are characteristic of the production of the father and son Precht. Lightness, balance and symmetry characterize their work. A blue coloured glass mirror, illustrated in E. Sylvén Welander-Berggren, Speglar: Spegelmakare & Fabrikörer I Sverige 1650-1850, Stockholm, 2000, p 194 (fig. 1), shows the same spandrels richly underlined. Another, also published in the same book, presents the same double ice frame (fig. 2). Bibliographical references Serge Roche, Germain Courage, Pierre Devinoy, Miroirs, ed. Bibliothèque des Ar