LOOKING-GLASSES
A STRONG distinction was made in America during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries between mirrors and looking-glasses; the name “mirror” was applied to a particular kind of glass, either convex or concave, and one old authority states that “a mirror is a circular convex glass in a gilt frame.”
Looking-glasses appear in inventories in this country as early as 1650, and in 1658 William Bartlett of Hartford left no less than ten, the dearest valued at one pound.
In 1670 the Duke of Buckingham brought Venetian workmen to England, and established glass works in Lambeth; but up to that date the looking-glasses occasionally mentioned in inventories must have been made in Venice. Some of the records are “a great looking glass,”—“looking glass with brasses,”—“great looking glass of ebony,”—“an olive wood diamond cut looking glass,”—and “a looking glass with a walnut tree frame.” The glass usually had the edge finished with a slight bevelling about an inch wide, made by hand, of course, which followed the outline of the inside of the frame.
Illus. 363.—Looking-glass, 1690.
Hungerford Pollen, in “Furniture and Woodwork,” says: “The looking-glasses made in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries ... had the plates finished by an edge gently bevelled, of an inch in width, following the form of the frame, whether square or shaped in curves. It is of great difficulty in execution, the plate being held by the workman over his head, and the edges cut by grinding.... The angle of the” (modern) “bevel is generally too acute, whereby the prismatic light produced by this portion of the mirror is in too violent and showy contrast to the remainder.”
One can always distinguish an old bevel, by rubbing the finger upon it. The bevel is so slight that it can hardly be felt, where the modern bevel is sharp and distinct.