32 AMERICAN 
HOMES 
AND GARDENS Januaty, 1906 
Salem’s Colonial Mirrors 
By Arthur Lewiston 
) HE richly laden craft which used to fill Salem 
harbor in tae early days of her golden pros- 
perity brought to the town many rare old 
curios and odd bits of furniture from Zanzi- 
bar, Calcutta, the East Indies and the 
uttermost parts of the earth. No wonder 
the earmarks of the past turn up at every corner of the old 
town, and her stately Colonial mansions are crowded with 
antiques, including many valuable old mirrors, which have 
been handed down for many generations. ‘To appreciate 
many of these heirlooms from over the seas one would be 
fortunate if he might dip into the annals of the old town at 
the hightide of her commercial glory, for the life of the 
Salem sea captains of the Colonial days reads like a glowing 
page of romance and adventure. 
It has been naively suggested that “ Eve invented the first 
mirror,’ so that even our Puritan ancestors had a worthy 
precedent in their admiration for this object of use and 
beauty, though it might rank among the vanities of this 
world. ‘That mirrors were popular in the early days of the 
Colonies is proved by the many old inventories which list 
their prices and give odd descriptive bits. For instance, an 
old Salem record of 1684 refers to “‘a large looking-glass 
and brasses, 2 pounds 5 shillings.” In another inventory 
at Philadelphia, in 1686, ‘a square looking-glass cut with 
diamonds ”’ is mentioned, and at Boston, in 1698, “a large 
looking-glass ” is listed at 2 pounds 15 shillings. ‘Then the 
old London papers of the seventeenth century make frequent 
reference to sales of looking-glasses. If they were in vogue 
in London it is safe to say that the Colonists also owned them. 
Previous to 1673, when Lambert introduced mirror glass- 
making in England, one may feel sure that the mirrors in 
this country came from Venice, either directly or indirectly, 
because for nearly a century after the Venetians discovered 
the art of plate-glass making they zealously guarded their 
A» 
a Ae ’ i 
Bilboa Glass in Mrs. Nathan 
Osgood’s House, Salem, Mass. 
A Lafayette Mirror Belonging to 
Mrs. Nathan Osgood 
ee 
thn ot oY eee 
ney 
— 
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& 
oy 
A Mirror Made between 1770 and 1780 
secret and were protected by the Government. But Salem 
merchants were never daunted by the perils of the sea, and 
their richly cargoed ships often touched at the port of Venice, 
so that an occasional Venetian mirror was no rarity in the 
Salem colony. 
The mirror shown here is the property of Mrs. N. B. 
Mansfield, whose home, on historic Chestnut Street, is a 
oe 
: 
el 
A Mirror Belonging to 
Mrs. W. D. Northend 
