Plate L.—Mirrors, by Marot.
About thirty handsome looking-glasses of the period are there. Many of them are pier-glasses hung, of course, between the windows. One of the most noticeable of these is a fine pier-glass in William III’s State Bedroom, dating from his time. This has a border of cut blue glass, the edges are bevelled, and the centre contains the monogram W. R., surmounted by the crown in blue and white glass. A similar mirror hangs over the fireplace.
Another looking-glass with a blue glass frame hangs between the windows in Queen Mary’s Closet.
Another beautiful chandelier hangs in William III’s Presence Chamber: this is of silver, with eight lower and four upper arms. It is decorated with the harp, thistle, etc. A still more ornate one hangs in the Queen’s Audience Chamber. This is a magnificent combination of silver and crystal, with silver sea-horses and lions supporting the silver branches, crystal balls and drops, and a crystal crown on top.
The mantelpieces are extremely interesting, as many of them are of the old inverted funnel shape, and are supplied with tiers of shelves—sometimes as many as six—for the reception of ornaments. Upon these now stands a good deal of blue and white china, many pieces of which belonged to Queen Mary. Pieces that are known to have belonged to her are two blue and white jars and two goddesses in Queen Mary’s Closet, and two goddesses and two vases, about eighteen inches high, on the mantelpiece of William III’s Presence Chamber.
Charles II, who, while a royal refugee, spent much time in Holland, had acquired the new taste. It was there, doubtless, that he saw visions of wealth in the Indies that later led him to grant the English East India Company a charter, and to embark on a disastrous and inglorious war, which resulted in London hearing foreign guns for the first time since England was a nation. His keen appreciation of Oriental works of art, however, was somewhat dulled when his bride, Catherine of Braganza, brought him a shipload of cabinets and ceramics in lieu of the dowry her mother had promised, although Evelyn, in his description of Hampton Court (1662), says: “The Queen brought over with her from Portugal such Indian cabinets as had never before been seen here.”
It is frequently asserted with apparent authority that Mary carried the Dutch taste for porcelain and the manufactures of the Far East into England; but, as we have seen, this idea is not well founded. Herself a china-maniac, she merely set the royal stamp of approval on contemporary taste, and made Hampton Court a model of the style refugié. That style dominated English and Dutch homes before she heartlessly danced in the Palace of Whitehall from which her father had fled.
Hampton Court, remodelled under her directions, was not completed till 1693. Many documents show that the style refugié was popular in English aristocratic homes before that date.
