Maker
Thomas Natt (American, active 1809–1841)American, active 1809–1841
CultureAmerican
Titles
- Looking Glass
Datec. 1835
Made inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
MediumEastern white pine; composition, gold leaf, and mirrored glass
Dimensions53 1/2 × 33 1/2 × 2 3/8 in. (135.9 × 85.1 × 6 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.68.26
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Chillman Parlor
Exposé
Explore Further
Department
Bayou BendObject Type
Thomas Natt was an importer and maker of a wide variety of frames (see also B.94.8). A number of his labeled dressing glasses or shaving stands survives. This large gilt looking glass, with its lotus-ornamented baluster frame and corner rosettes, is made in such a way that it could have been used either horizontally over a mantel or vertically between windows as a pier glass.
Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.
Provenance[Peter Hill, Washington, D.C.]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1968; given to MFAH, 1968.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Label on backboard: THOMAS NATT, / CARVER, GILDER, / AND IMPORTER OF / British and French Loooking [sic] Glasses, / ENGRAVINGS & C. / No. 192, / Chestnut Street Near Eighth St. / PHILADELPHIA. / AN ELEGANT ASSORTMENT OF / GILT FRAMED MANTEL AND PIER GLASSES. / MAHOGANY Do. Do. [MANTEL AND PIER GLASSES] / TOILETTE AND SWING GLASSES. / PICTURE and PORTRAIT FRAMES made to any pattern, at the shortest notice. / YOUNG, PRINTER
[no marks]
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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Thomas Fentham
c. 1800
Eastern white pine, scots pine, spruce, composition, paint, gold leaf, mercury/tin amalgam mirrored glass
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c. 1785–1815
Mahogany and mahogany veneer; white pine, composition, gold leaf, iron, and mirrored glass
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c. 1745–1770
Mahogany; mahogany veneer, coniferous wood pine, spruce or fir, composition, gold leaf, and mirrored glass
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Thomas Natt
c. 1825–1835
Mahogany; eastern white pine, holly, yellow-poplar, brass, and mirror glass
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c. 1785–1820
Gilded sylvestris pine and eastern white pine; composition and mirror glass
B.69.381
