1920s Antique Chippendale Gilt Mahogany Wood Frame With Mirror By: Wallace Nutting

Description

Vintage Wallace Nutting mirror surrounded by mahogany wood sawed open fretwork and decorated with carved gilt decorations.

Rectangular beveled looking … more Vintage Wallace Nutting mirror surrounded by mahogany wood sawed open fretwork and decorated with carved gilt decorations.

Rectangular beveled looking glass in a parcel gilt carved mahogany frame.

At top is a carved and gilded bird, a crane with a crest feather resting on a branch.

At bottom is a carved and gilded foliated quatrefoil.

The back is covered with a fruit wood panel and is marked multiple times with the Wallace Nutting block letter iron brand signature which was in use from 1925 through the 1930s.

This is a stylized reproduction of 18th century looking glasses from the Queen Anne and Georgian periods. Wallace Nutting collected and documented similar mirrors in his furniture treasury volumes. He featured like mirrors in some of his Colonials and was obviously influenced by multiple antique versions in creating this design. Note the photo from his treasury we have included that pictures a 1780 carved mahogany frame with a gilded bird that is nearly exact to his version.

This Wallace Nutting mirror will complement interiors featuring elements of Chippendale, Georgian, Queen Anne, Martha Washington, Pilgrim Century, American Colonial, Colonial Revival, Early Georgian, American Federal, Chinese Chippendale, Chinoiserie, Transitional, Hepplewhite, Sheraton, and Early Empire.

SIZE:

23.5" wide
42.5" high
2.75" deep

About Wallace Nutting:

Wallace Nutting is remembered as a photographer, minister, collector, compiler and writer of multiple books, artist, antiquarian, lecturer, and furniture manufacturer.

Nutting took his first photos in 1897 as a hobby to counter discomfort from vertigo caused by an inner ear condition. He learned photography techniques quickly and was soon published in a variety of magazines and selling prints. A friend convinced him to hand-color his rural scenes and these became successful sellers through art dealers.

Nutting began photographing scenes of American Colonial interiors and had one published in a 1902 edition of Country Life In America as a color, two-page removable centerfold.

In 1904 Nutting was able to open a gallery and sales room in New York, but was forced to close after a long bout with pneumonia. After recovering, Nutting and his wife purchased a neglected 1740 Georgian house in Connecticut that they name Nuttinghame. It was during the restoration process that Nutting developed his love for American Colonial furnishings.

By 1909, at his wife Mariet's suggestion, Nutting pursued photographing American Colonial interiors with models in period costumes, many of them photographed at Nuttinghame and featuring his colorists. It was at this time that Nutting started searching for American Colonial and Pilgrim Century antique furnishings to use as props in his photographs. His tenacious collecting enabled him within seven years to boast that his scenes were historically correct.

Nutting continued collecting antiques and in 1917 he published his first book, Windsor Chairs: An Illustrated Handbook. This same year, he opened a furniture factory where he employed skilled craftsmen to reproduce Early American Furniture.

Nutting went on to purchase historic American buildings and homes and restore them. He also continued to publish books about antiques, including Furniture of the Pilgrim Century in 1921 and his three-volume Furniture Treasury in 1928-1933.

Due to his activities, Nutting became the leading influencer for the 1920s and 1930s American Colonial Revival in architecture and furnishings.

Nutting's collection of hundreds of objects of early American furniture, decorative arts, and objects of material culture were purchased by the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, CT with funds from the financier and collector J.P. Morgan.

These points about Nutting's life and contributions are very brief. You may read more about him online.

Mirror is in stock now at India Street Antiques in San Diego and is ready for pick-up, delivery, and shipping. less