Rowley Gallery Marquetry Mirror, circa 1920

£375.00

VAT Included

Measures - 32 cm x 27 cm

A trumeau mirror by the Rowley Gallery of Kensington Church Street, the upper section inlaid with a marquetry panel depicting a barn and rural landscape in various natural and stained woods, the scene rendered in the bold, simplified manner characteristic of the gallery's work in the early 1920s. The reeded gilt frame is original throughout. The mirror plate, though foxed with age, retains considerable character.
The Rowley Gallery was founded in 1898 by Albert James Rowley and his wife Emma, beginning as a small business specialising in picture framing, carving, gilding and exhibitions of paintings before becoming renowned throughout the 1920s and 1930s for its inlay wood panels, mirrors and screens. Albert Rowley began commissioning artists to make designs specifically for wood panels, and one of the first was William Chase (1878–1944), who went on to design the distinctive Pan label used to identify the gallery's furniture from 1912. Frank Brangwyn was another significant collaborator, contributing numerous designs for panels over many years, and Rowley Gallery pieces were exhibited at the Monza International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in 1930. Works by the gallery are held in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum and Brighton Museum and Art Gallery.

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