A "rare" ceiling mirror from Donald Trump's New York City penthouse is up for sale. Part of a 24-carat gold and bevelled mirror ceiling, commissioned by the now President of the United States for his property at Trump Tower in 1987, will go under the hammer in Gloucestershire on October 7.
The fragment, described as "rare" and "unusual", measures 77 x 15cm (30 x 6in) and features a leaf pattern. This section is believed to be one of only three pieces left over from the original ceiling commission, which was produced by a specialist glass studio in California. It is estimated to fetch £300-500 at auction.
Craftsmanship behind the commission
More than 800ft of 15cm-wide mirror coffers were produced by the studio for the grand project, with more than 12,000 individually cut leaves incorporated into the mirror ceiling over an eight-month period. The piece was then worked on by specialist polishers, before the gilding was added.
This particular strip was cut by James Witchell, a British "brilliant cutter" working on the American project, who was given the piece as a memento when his work came to an end. Witchell was specialised in the process of cutting glass against a revolving grindstone and subsequently polishing it. Now retired from the trade, the craftsman has recently been reducing his collection and has consigned this piece for sale.
Provenance and auction details
The Trump Tower penthouse flat had originally been designed in a more contemporary style, Dominic Winter Auctioneers said, but its interiors were "subsequently radically redesigned" in the late 1980s to reflect the President's "theatrical" take on European royal grandeur.
Chris Albury, Director at the auction house, said: "This is an extraordinary survivor from a hugely ambitious decorative project. The amount of craftsmanship involved is remarkable, with thousands of individual leaves cut and polished by hand before the mirror was gilded in 24 carat gold."
"The fact that this particular piece was retained as a memento by one of the British craftsmen who worked on the project gives it an especially fascinating provenance."
Recent Trump Tower events
Last week, the US President met French President Emmanuel Macron at Trump Tower ahead of the United Nations summit in New York. The two leaders met on Monday September 21 and Macron told French journalists he and Trump had spent the meeting discussing the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and around the Red Sea.
He said: "The other issue we talked about was the situation in the Red Sea . . . It's important for global prices. Then we had a long discussion about Ukraine and Russia. We had a very good discussion. It was very constructive."
