Looking glass, rococo, one of pair

Dateca. 1750

MediumWalnut, european spruce (by microscopic id), gold-leaf, glass, and brass

DimensionsOH: 59 3/4"; OW: 31 1/2"; OD: 4 1/2"

Credit LineBequest of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph H. Hennage

Object number1991-65,2

DescriptionPair of looking glasses each having a leaf-carved and molded swan's neck cresting centering a shield-form cartouche, the scrollboard with applied gilded shell amid leafage above a rectangular mirror plate within a pierced and gilded scroll- and leaf-carved surround, the edge of the mirror frame further ornamented with egg-and dart-carved moldings above shaped pendant with applied stylized gilded shell and leafage, the pendant also with double candle arms.
Label TextFamily provenance suggests that this looking glass and its mate were originally owned by Hendrick and Catherine De Peyster Rutgers of New York. Because plate glass was not produced in America during the mid-18th century, most looking glasses owned in the colonies (and certainly all of the glass in them) were imported from Europe, primarily England. This example with its exuberant rococo carving was likely imported to New York. A handful of similar looking glasses are known in the Winterthur and Dietrich Americana collections. Rutgers University in New Jersey was named after Hendrick and Catherine’s son Henry.
ProvenanceHendrick Rutgers, married Catherine De Peyster in New York in 1730; Mary Rutgers, fifth child of Hendrick and Catherine Rutgers (sister of Henry Rutgers, founder of Rutgers University), married Stephen McCrea, b. 1755, surgeon in the Battle of Ticonderoga, Revolutionary War; Mary Rutgers McCrea Hedges, b. April 4, 1819, married Abraham Bogart Conger, 1836; Wilhelmina De Peyster Knauth, granddaughter of Mary Conger; Israel Sack, Inc. New York.