A George III Irish blue and white cut-glass mirror of Neoclassical, oval form, retaining its original, eighteenth-century mirror plate, in the manner of John Dederek Ayckboum.

Of a form indigenous to Ireland, this mirror is in the manner of John Dederek Ayckboum (fl. 1783-1820), a fine glass cutter and cut-glass dealer active in Ireland in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries . The son of German immigrants Herman and Dederek Ayckboum who established a business in manufacturing and cutting glass in London in 1772, John was sent to Dublin in 1783 to capitalize on the boom in Irish glass following the opening of the Waterford factory in the same year. He developed a branch there, opening a warehouse and cutting shop in Grafton Street. This was followed in 1799 with a ‘new Venice glass and chrystal manufactory’ which lasted until 1802. He remained at Grafton Street until 1820.

This mirror closely resembles a girandole by Ayckboum (signed), made around the same time in circa 1790, now in the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery and Museum, Bedford. It too is of oval form and has a border of dark blue and white faceted glass.

The present mirror is a rare survivor. With a border of small pieces of dark blue and white faceted glass, silvered on the back, arranged in a single row and inlaid with foliate motifs, this is a delicate object that remarkably is also complete with its original mirror plate.