97.3cm (38.2in) x 53.5cm (21in)
Gilt wood pier glass, the frame comprising fluted pilasters supporting Sphinx capitals and frieze decorated with Nelson armorial and iconography, the whole capped by a cornice of ribbon and ball design.
Mirrors of similar design to the present example were first produced in the Egyptian taste to commemorate the Battle of the Nile fought in Aboukir Bay on 1 August 1798. The frieze decoration reflected Nelson’s elevation in peerage November 1798 as Baron Nelson of the Nile, and of Burnham Thorpe, and his crushing victory over Admiral Villenevue. Later commemorative mirrors can be identified by the inclusion of a viscount’s coronet displaying seven ‘pearls’ to reflect Nelson’s 1801 advancement in the peerage from a barony to a viscountcy.
The heraldic trophy of arms alludes to the Battle of the Nile through the inclusion of smoking cannon and victor’s laurels. Naval emblems include an anchor and an ensign. The latter serves the double function of obscuring the ancient family arms (of Nelson of Lancashire - Or, a cross flory Sable, over all a bendlet Gules) - and highlighting the augmentation granted by George III to Nelson in respect of the Battle of the Nile - ‘a chief undulated Argent, and thereon waves of the sea with a palm-tree between a disabled ship on the dexter side and a battery in ruins on the sinister, all proper’. The only part of the lower section of the shield that is visible, gives a glimpse of an earlier augmentation granted for Nelson’s role in the Battle of Cape St. Vincent in 1797 - 'a bend Gules surmounted by another bend engrailed Or and thereon three bombs fired proper'). The palm branches reference Nelson's personal motto ‘PALMAN QUI MERUIT FERAT’ (Let him bear the palm of victory who has won it), and also reflect a further Nile augmentation to his armorial bearings (- viz: supporters - ‘in the hand of the Sailor a palm branch, and another in the paw of the Lion, both proper, with the addition of a tri-coloured Flag and Staff in the mouth of the latter’).