gilt & fret cut mirrors

During  the Renaissance in Europe, mirrors or looking glasses as they were known were made by a method of coating blown and then opened and flattened out glass with a tin and mercury amalgam. This method of manufacture carried on until the late 18th century.These mirror plates were very expensive and only the rich could afford them.

During the 17th and 18th centuries a variety of materials were used to frame the mirrors including fine wood veneers, lacquer work, silver and gilt and needlework. The style of the frames could be cushion frames or from the early 18th century ornately fret cut, and often fashionably set between piers or simply used as looking glasses.

Toilet or dressing mirrors often with drawers underneath were used in the bedroom

.As the 18th century drew on heavily carved gilt wood mirrors were popular and often of oval form.