Thomas Natt
Looking Glass

MakerAmerican, 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
On view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

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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scan from file photograph
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