A PAIR OF GILTWOOD CIRCULAR MIRRORS WITH POUNCED PLATES

June 10 2009, 10:36am

English. Second Quarter Of The Nineteenth Century. The existence of convex mirrors dates back to the second quarter of the 15th century.

However, the more widespread introduction of these mirrors in interior decoration did not occur until the latter part of the 18th century, when a new production method allowed convex mirror plates to be made in a mold. This more efficient, less costly approach promoted a great fashion for this type of mirror in England during the first decades of the 19th century.

In the 18th and early 19th centuries mirrors were regarded as lighting devices as well as decorative fixtures, which would reflect back the interior of the room they were situated in; convex mirrors lent themselves particularly well to both these functions.

While the present mirrors derive from this tradition, they differ substantially in that they consist of multiple concentric convex mirrors within a flat-mirrored surface.