42 
House & Garden 
Among the diversity of 
interpretations in the 
Neo-Classic period is 
the carved gilt convex 
mirror or girandole 
MIRRORS and MIRROR FRAMES in THREE CENTURIES 
The Curve of Furniture Development is Marked by the Design of Renaissance, 
Baroque, Rococo and Neo-Classic Mirrors 
COSTEN FITZ-GIBBON 
Cate Renaissance Italian carved and gilt mirror. 
Courtesy of Nicholas Martin 
TTllTTUT __ 
ver gilt with sun-rayed fram 
Courtesy of Lehne 
Under the Baroque designs comes 
this Restoration carved wood and 
silver gilt mirror. Lehne 
T HE story of mirrors as furniture and as 
factors in decoration begins in the 16th 
Century. As furnishing and decorative ad¬ 
juncts they reached the climax of their de¬ 
velopment in the 18th Century. As imposing 
expanses of glass they attained a size in the 
early 19th Century that sometimes dwarfed the 
decorative significance of their frames. Both 
periods are well worth the study of those who 
are interested in interior decorating. 
Certain frames are so adjustable that they 
may be used almost anywhere with equally 
happy effect. Others, again, have such pro¬ 
nounced characteristics that they demand care¬ 
ful consideration on the score of the principles 
of correspondence and analogy of line. 
One thing is plain: mirror frames echoed 
faithfully the progress of evolution in the great 
cycle of style development as manifested in its 
successive phases—Renaissance, Baroque, Ro¬ 
coco and Neo-Classic, followed by the Direc- 
toire and Empire as subsidiary stylistic phe¬ 
nomena. 
The size of glass obtainable governed the 
size of mirrors and, consequently, much of 
their decorative capacity. In the 16th Century 
sheets of mirror glass were small and the 
frames were minor considerations, so far as 
the space they occupied was concerned. Mirror 
glass was also precious and on the frames, 
therefore, were often lavished great care and 
expense. When precious metals, precious 
stones and cameos were not employed as fram¬ 
ing accessories, the frames were of wood carved 
in high relief in motifs characteristic of the 
period, motifs that exhibited a strong archi¬ 
tectural trend. Nearly all the glass at this 
time was made in Venice and Italy had prac- 
French, l&th Century gilt frame 
with painted panel. Karl Freund 
