Illus. 365.—Looking-glass,
about 1730.
A looking-glass of the same date, with a carved wood frame, silvered, heads Chapter VI. It was originally owned by an ancestor of the late Major Ben: Perley Poore, and was probably made in Europe. It has always, within the memory of the family, been silvered, and it is safe to say that it was so originally. The carving is rather crudely done, the ornament at the top containing a bird which is sitting upon a cherub’s head. This glass is now at Indian Hill, Newburyport.
In nothing is the charm of association more potent than in an old looking-glass, when one considers the faces and scenes that have been reflected in it. Illustration [365] shows a looking-glass which hung in the Schuyler mansion at Stillwater, New York, in which Washington stopped over night; and although the quicksilver is somewhat worn off the back of the glass, the thought that it must have mirrored the face of Washington preserves it from being restored. The shape is extremely graceful, and the outline of the inside of the frame is followed by little scrolls cut in the glass. The frame is carved in wood, and gilt, and was probably made in Italy about 1730. It is now owned by the writer. The low-boy in the illustration is described upon page [39].
Rococo and Chinese designs were rampantly fashionable in frames for looking-glasses from 1750 to 1780. They present an astonishing combination of Chinese pagodas, shells, flowers, branches, animals, and birds, with occasionally a figure of a man or woman considerably smaller than the flowers and birds upon the same frame.
Some of the famous designers of frames were Matthias Lock, who published “A Book New of Pier Frames, Oval Girandoles, Tables, etc.,” in 1765; Edwards and Darley; and Thomas Johnson; besides the better-known cabinet-makers Ince and Mayhew and Chippendale. Lock and Johnson devoted much space to frames for girandoles, pier glasses, ovals, and chimney-pieces, all elaborately carved with scrolls and shells with dripping water, birds, and animals of every sort from a monkey to a cow, the latter unromantic and heavy creature figuring upon a dripping scroll in one of Johnson’s frames.
Illus. 366.—Pier Glass in “Chinese Taste,” 1760.
Illustration [366] shows a looking-glass of the size which was called a “pier” glass, which must have been made about 1760. It is carved in walnut, and the natural wood has never been stained or gilt. It presents many of the characteristic designs fashionable at that time, of scrolls and dripping water, while no less than seven pagoda roofs form a part of the frame. The figure, probably a Chinese lady with a parasol, is missing from the pagoda at the top. Below the frame is carved a little monkey sitting in the lower scroll. The frame is rather unusual in having side branches for candles. This looking-glass and the one in the following illustration are owned by Mrs. Charles Barrell of Barrell’s Grove, York Corner, Maine, and are in the old Barrell house, which stands with its original furniture, as it stood one hundred and fifty years ago. These looking-glasses were bought by a Barrell ancestor at an auction in London, about 1795. The articles sold at this auction were the furnishings of one of the households of the Prince of Wales, which was, temporarily at least, given up by him upon his marriage, and these glasses have reflected many a gay scene in which the “First gentleman in Europe” figured, while Beau Brummel may have used them to arrange the wonderful toilettes which won him his name. What a change to the little Maine village!