Furniture of the Olden Time

by Frances Clary Morse

Illus. 369.—Looking-glass,
1725-1750.

Another of the same period, with a carved wood frame, is shown at the beginning of Chapter IV. This frame has a classical design of garlands of laurel with an urn at the top. The small oval medallion at the base of both of these frames seems to be a feature of such looking-glasses, together with the garlands of carved wood. This looking-glass is owned by the writer. Upon its back is an oak board which must have been prized highly, for it has been carefully repaired with two patches of wood set into it.

Illustration [369] shows a looking-glass made in the first half of the eighteenth century, of walnut. The gilt mouldings are carved in wood, as are the gilt leaves and flowers at the side. The waving line of the inside of the frame is followed in the bevelling of the glass. Glasses of this period were usually made in two pieces, to lessen the expense, the edge of one piece of glass being simply lapped over the other. This looking-glass is unusually large, seven and one-half feet high and three feet wide. It is now owned by the Philadelphia Library Association, and was used in 1778 at the famous Mischianza fête, where probably the lovely Peggy Shippen and the beautiful Jewess, Rebecca Frank, and perhaps the ill-fated André, used the glass to put the finishing touches to their toilettes, or to repair the damages wrought during the gay dances of that historic ball.

A looking-glass showing the development from the one in Illustration [369] may be seen in Illustration [26] upon page [39]. The frame is more elaborate than the older one in its curves and in the pediment with the broken arch, and its date is about 1770. The original glass is gone, so we cannot tell if it was bevelled, but it probably was. This very fine frame came from the Chase mansion in Annapolis, and is now owned by Harry Harkness Flagler, Esq., of Millbrook, New York.

Illus. 370.—Looking-glass, 1770-1780.

Another looking-glass owned by Mr. Flagler is shown in Illustration [370]. The frame is of walnut veneer, and the shape of the glass without any curves at the top, and the garlands at the side more finely modelled and strung upon a wire, determine it to have been made some years later than the frame in Illustration [369].

A looking-glass with a mahogany and gilt frame, owned by the writer, is shown in the heading to Chapter IX. This looking-glass dates between the last two described; the curved form of the upper edge of the glass in Illustration [26] leaving a slight reminder in the cut-off, upper corners of this glass, which vanishes in the square corners of the one in Illustration [370]. The garlands at each side are carved from wood, without wire. These looking-glasses are now reproduced in large numbers and are sometimes called Washington glasses, from the fact that one hangs upon the wall in a room at Mount Vernon.