November, 1910 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



435 



NTIL the Thirteenth Century mirrors were 

 made of burnished metal. The first look- 

 ing-glasses with silvered backs were merely 

 small mirrors destined to hang on a lady's 

 chatelaine. In the Sixteenth Century the 

 art of silvering the back was brought to 

 perfection in Murano; and not long after 

 those celebrated glass-works were in operation, the French, 

 Germans and English all stepped into the field, and began 

 to make looking-glasses with more or less success. The 

 French and English, however, achieved the best results 

 in imitating the Venetian work. About the Sixteenth Cen- 

 tury glasses with beveled sides (a hiseau) were made in 

 Venice and frames became of great importance. 



A French authority tells us that "In Italy they were 

 developed in redundant foliage, supporting figures of 

 geniuses; or crowned with a pyramidal composition on 

 which appeared the escutcheon of the owner; others were 

 sculptured in hard wood, such as oak, the most perfect of 

 these works being gilded on the bare wood with a species 

 of bright gold called ducat gold; others were coated with 

 that white paste which is still used and gilded on a light 

 impression of vermilion." 



"A great change took place under Louis XIV; Venice 

 and its mirrors were left far behind; and after having 

 vainly endeavored to bring over 

 workmen from Murano to found a 

 minufa^tory of glass in the faubourg 

 St. Antoine, Colbert learnt that one 

 already existed in regular working 

 order at Tourlaville near Cher- 

 bourg. The minister sent for Lucas 

 de Xehou, the director, to take in 

 hand the royal manufactory of 

 glasses. Shortly after, he was able 

 to send from it the splendid decora- 

 tions of the galerie des fetes for Ver- 

 sailles. Thenceforth it could no 

 longer be a question of counterbal- 

 ancing the minute dimensions of the 

 mirror by the development of its 

 frame; the latter therefore under- 

 went a transformation, and, like the 

 borders of wainscotings, was re- 

 duced to delicate arabesque combina- 

 tions connected by wreaths of flow- 

 ers, relieved by masks and palmettes, 

 or by shells and acanthus foliage. 

 Notwithstanding the increased di- 

 mensions of the glasses their effect 

 was still more heightened by inlaid 

 pieces. Thus sections of glass were 

 ranged at each corner of the prin- 



Fig. 1 — Looking-glass with mahogany and gih 



frame dating from the middle of the 



eighteenth century 



cipal sheet of glass, whether oval or rectangular, then pieces 

 to form a border, and others forming a pediment at the 

 top, and a pendant towards the base; gilded and carved 

 wood united them all, hiding the joints by ingenious inter- 

 sections, and furnishing the architectural framework with 

 its chief designs, its stems and wreaths, its crowned masks, 

 requisite for consolidating the masses and giving points of 

 attraction to the eye. These sculptures are of extreme 

 elegance of composition and of great delicacy of work- 

 manship." 



The Duke of Buckingham started a factory in Lam- 

 beth about 1670, and sent for the best glass-makers, glass- 

 grinders, and polishers from Venice, which we are told, 

 "succeeded so well as to be now enabled to send to that 

 very place and to every other part of Europe, and to 

 Asia, Africa and America, the finest glass of all sorts that 

 the world can produce." In 1677 Evelyn notes of a visit 

 to Lambeth: "We also saw the Duke of Buckingham's 

 glass-works, where they made huge vases of metal as clear, 

 ponderous and thick as crystal; also looking-glasses far 

 larger and better than any that come from Venice." 



The Vauxhall Plate Glass factory was in operation until 

 1780. Charles II forbade the importation of any kind of 

 glass; and this, of course, gave a strong incentive to native 

 talent. The secrets of manufacture were guarded, but 

 glass was made in Vauxhall in much 

 the same manner as in Murano. The 

 largest sized plates were four feet; 

 and when a large mirror was re- 

 quired, two or more pieces of glass 

 were used. Small mirrors were also 

 often made in two sections. Manv 

 of these Vauxhall mirrors were ex- 

 ported to America. 



At first the frames were of ebony, 

 olive-wood and walnut; at the end 

 of the Seventeenth Century lacquered 

 frames were popular and soft wood 

 carved and gilded, or a composition 

 of something like plaster of Paris, 

 molded and gilt. 



About the time of the Restoration 

 decorative frames were made. At 

 first they were architectural in char- 

 acter; but later they became simpler 

 and were often but a narrow margin 

 or "list" of walnut, or ebony, or wood 

 stained black to represent ebony. 

 The glass was usually beveled and 

 the outline of the bevel followed the 

 curves of the inner frame. The 

 Vauxhall plates were small; and. 

 therefore, the mirrors were often in 



