A MIRROR that belonged to 18th century monarch Queen Anne sold for £50,000 at auction in Dorchester.

Dewlish House, which is regarded as one of the most beautiful stately homes in the country, has just been sold for only the second time in its 300-year history and the contents of the house were sold at auction by Duke’s of Dorchester on April 15.

Two of the highest-selling pieces were monarch pieces, one of which was a Queen Anne Pier Mirror which was expected to fetch an estimated £20,000. However interest and bidding took off when it went under the hammer - and it sold for £50,000.

The mirror measures 230cm high x 109cm wide and consists of three bevelled plates in an arched frame with a verre églomisé border in red and gilt decorated with leafy strapwork, in a simple moulded gilt wood frame carved with a repeating pattern of foliage and formalised scrollwork.

The mirror was the top-selling lot from the Dewlish House auction on April 15.

The house, a Grade I-listed building, near Milborne St Andrew, is one of Dorset’s most beautiful country houses - which sold for around £10 million under estate agents Knight Frank.

The second highest selling lot of the auction was a George II Giltwood Console Table.

Like the mirror, the table, which measures 122cm wide x 64cm deep x 80.5cm high, also smashed its original estimated value of £20,000, selling for double at £40,000.

The table is designed in the manner of William Kent.

The table has a breche violette marble top along with canted corners and projecting rectangular ears at the back. This features consist over a frieze carved with stylised acanthus leaves and scrolls and a band of fluting, on acanthus-carved S-scroll front legs set at an angle - carved with entrelac and scale-work ending in knurled toes and moulded block feet.

Duke's said the table's recent place of origin is that it was acquired at auction in London by the late Anthony Boyden in the 1960s.