Yesterday’s blog entry prompted a few emails from loyal blogophiles who read my brief article about mirrors in California Homes. Frankly, as with a number of English antiques, a modern context has made us forget the impact that some pieces made in their own day and this certainly is the case with 18th and early 19th century mirrors.
The popularity of this form in the early 19th century says something about fashion, of course, but also about the technology that enabled something like this to be made. Indeed, it is still no easy matter, with the convexity of the glass and trimming it to a circular shape requiring no less precision now than 200 years ago. The typical placement for a convex mirror was in a position of prominence- above a fireplace mantle or in an entry foyer- reflecting as it would the totality of activity in a fairly public room. Mind you, I find peering into a convex mirror will unbalance me if carried on for more than a few seconds. Our bibulous ancestors who considered the downing of a pint of sherry as a mere refresher would certainly have had the same experience as one of their more temperate descendants.
As with a giltwood frame supporting expensive furnishing fabric, mirror glass was still sufficiently dear that it required a surround typologically worthy of it. The mirror in the caption has a frame not just gilded, but with a burnished water gilt outer and inner rim along with the interior beads, separated by a less bright non-burnished central rim. Perhaps not as well suited for seeing into, it clearly was meant to be seen.