A Charles II Easel Mirror
Silver & Wood
London, 1679
Maker’s mark of Anthony Nelme
61cm., 24in. high

The plain rectangular frame with cast floral and foliate details at the angles, the mantle embossed with scrolls and two cherubs above an elaborate engraved ribbon-tied leaf cartouche and coat-of-arms, wood back and easel support
Artist Biography:
Anthony Nelme, son of John Nelme, a yeoman of Muchmerkle, Herefordshire, was recorded as an apprentice to Richard Rowley in 1672 and was then made over to Isaac Deighton. Once he was free of the Goldsmiths' Company in 1690, Nelme was elected to the court of assistants in 1703 and was made fourth warden in 1717 and then second warden in 1722. During the period of Huguenot prominence Nelme was the leading English-born goldsmiths and was a signatory to the petitions to the Goldsmith Company wardens protesting the presence of the "necessitous strangers" in London. Queen Anne and the leading members of the aristocracy were some of Nelme's patrons. Among most of his important surviving works are a pair of forty-inch alter candlesticks of 1694 at Saint George's Chapel, Windsor (Honour 1971, p. 122), and a pair of pilgrim bottles of 1715 at Chatsworth (Honour 1971, p. 125).