August, 1921 
31 
that holds the priceless 
Kang-hsi and Chien-lung 
porcelain welcomes them. 
Each foot of painted mir¬ 
ror is worth hundreds of 
dollars, and if the paint¬ 
ing is especially fine, a 
mirror is sure to bring a 
thousand or more. In the 
London salesrooms beauti¬ 
ful examples in carved 
frames by Chippendale 
and his followers turn dol¬ 
lars into pounds. When 
one walks through the Chi¬ 
nese Mirror Room in the 
House in the Woods at The 
Hague one wonders what 
such a display would fetch 
if offered in an open mar¬ 
ket. 
England and Holland 
are the two chief homes of 
these mirrors. In both 
countries they became more 
of a craze than in France. 
They were known in Eng¬ 
land in William and Mary’s reign. There 
was a large influx in Queen Anne’s day, 
judging from numerous examples found in 
untouched walnut frames of the period, but 
the Georgians went mad over them. 
At the time Lord Macartney visited Pekin 
by Royal command Englishmen who sailed 
to China had their portraits done on mirrors. 
In Old Sun House in historic Cheyne Row 
there is a curious mirror with a picture of 
our Lady of Sorrows evidently copied from 
some book of prayers taken abroad by a 
Jesuit missionary. 
A little Queen Anne mirror in a black 
lacquer frame shows a quaint domestic 
scene. Such mirrors are hung above 
flower tables to reflect the flowers. The 
scenes are painted on the glass, which 
is then mirrored 
A companion to the mirror of the re¬ 
turning huntsman shown opposite de¬ 
picts the archers. The walled town in 
the background is painted with faithful 
realism. The colors are rich and clearly 
defined 
Students of the Chinese influence on Euro¬ 
pean art in the latter part of the 18th Cen¬ 
tury have thought that some of the Chinese 
artists were brought over to London. Among 
Chinese mirrors bearing portraits the late Mr. 
Stoner possessed a large oval of a boy after 
Gainsborough that was only slightly foreign 
in feeling. It is quite possible that some shy 
slit-eyed youth with a twelve-inch thumb nail 
was captured by an astute purveyor of the 
Chinese taste. It is easy to imagine him un¬ 
der the guidance of the hectic Ince patiently 
weaving the pagoda into a mad Renaissance 
of the Gothic. It is doubt¬ 
ful if many Orientals were 
lured from the spirits of 
their enlightened ancestors 
in those centuries from Marco 
Polo to Lord Macartney. 
The message sent by the 
Emperor in 1793 to George 
III begins — “Thou King 
having yearned from a dis¬ 
tance for the civilizing in¬ 
fluence”—This does not her¬ 
ald any great desire to allow 
his subjects to depart to such 
an unknown quantity as 
England. The world was 
square and China was its 
heart. The uncultured peo¬ 
ples on the rims might send 
their moneys for mirrors. 
Painted mirrors of this 
sort deserve an especial 
setting, in fact, a room 
may be built around them. 
Thus this example, which 
is rich with gold and 
black, would be effective 
on a silver wall 
