A RARE CHARLES II CARVED GILTWOOD MIRROR LATE 17TH CENTURY the mirror plate surrounded by triumphal putti before symbols of war, surmounted by a Marquess' coronet, above a cypher resting on two snarling lions, the apron emblazoned with a sunrise medallion with the date 1711 inside a swag146cm high, 117cm wideProvenance:Formerly the Messel family collection at NymansUntil removed to the Music Room at Holmstead Manor in 1947 Supplied by Oliver Messel after 1960 to Frederick and Phyllis Watkins for Flaxley AbbeyLiterature:J. Lees-Milne, 'Flaxley Abbey, Gloucestershire - II: The Home of Mr. and Mrs. F.B. Watkins', Country Life, 5 April 1973, p. 910, fig. 6This baroque carved and gilded trophy frame was photographed in 'The Catherine Boevey Bedroom' at Flaxley Abbey in 1973 when it was stated that together with much of the furniture it came from the late Colonel Messel's collection, that is Leonard Messel, father to Oliver Messel (J. Lees-Milne, 'Flaxley Abbey, Gloucestershire - II: The Home of Mr. and Mrs. F.B. Watkins', Country Life, 5 April 1973, p. 910, fig. 6).The frame is surmounted by a Marquess' coronet, pearls and three strawberry leaves, above a cypher that cannot be identified as yet but appears to depict an 'A'. It is superbly carved with military trophies, putti and laurel leaves with a cartouche on the apron dated '1711'; the latter possibly a later addition, and is of a particularly impressive size. Stylistically, it belongs to the latter half of the 17th century, and in the quality of its craftsmanship can be compared to a carved and gilded limewood trophy frame made in 1692-97 for Admiral Edward Russell to celebrate his naval victories against the French in 1692, now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. It is also similar to a late 17th century carved frame bearing the cypher of William III surmounted by a Royal crown that was presented to H.M. Queen Mary for exhibition at Hampton Court Palace, Middlesex, in 1939 ('A Royal Frame for Hampton Court', Country Life, 18 February 1939, p. 182). Other related frames include: one carved in the manner of the Anglo-Dutch sculptor, Grinling Gibbons (1648-1721), from the collection of Sir John Ramsden at Bulstrode, Buckinghamshire, one at Sudbury Hall, Derbyshire, c. 1680 (NT 652738), one at Groombridge Place, Kent, in 1924, c. 1680 ('Classic English Furniture: The Norman Adams Legacy 1923-2009', Sotheby's, London, 21 April 2009, lot 46), and one at Doddington Hall, Lincolnshire, dated 1690 ('Furniture and Pictures at Doddington Hall', Country Life, 10 October 1936, p. lx, fig. 3).The tradition for trophy frames remained fashionable into the 18th century, for example, the carved and gilded frames by Paul Petit and Henry Joris, 1739, for respectively portraits of Frederick, Prince of Wales by Jonathan Richardson the Elder and Augusta, Princess of Wales by Charles Philips, both at Warwick Castle, Warwickshire (Carlton Hobbs, David Oakey, 'Two Fredericks and a Frame', Furniture History, 2015, p. 90, fig. 3).