A Brief Look at Mirrors - Much More Than Meets the Eye...

Sometimes technology advances the world in ways few people might have expected. Cyrus McCormick’s mechanical reaper freed up 85% of the population to do things other than work on farms. The mobile phone laid the foundation for everything from Uber to Tinder and myriad apps in between. In the art world it was the mirror that enabled something we are all familiar with today… the self portrait. While we might have known what Rembrandt or Van Gogh looked like without their self portraits, the fact that we actually have them gives us a much better insight into the souls of both men, and countless others. And it was mirrors that made them possible.

Basically, mirrors are spectacular things. Whether a simple rectangle you buy at Target for the back of your bathroom door or the embellished Louis XIV style giant you picked up as the centerpiece of your dining room wall, mirrors can be both functional and beautiful.

While today most of us take them for granted, the reality is, mirrors didn’t exist through most of human history, and for much of the time they have, we probably wouldn’t recognize them as mirrors at all! Indeed, one of the first mirrors in literature was not a mirror at all, but a pool of water. In Greek mythology Narcissus was a hunter known for his beauty. Tired of his boorish behavior towards those who loved him, his father, the river god Cephissus, lured Narcissus to gaze into a pool where his eyes set upon an extraordinary beauty.  Not realizing it was simply a reflection of himself, Narcissus fell in love with the image… Unable to pull himself away from his love, Narcissus drowned…

History’s first mirrors were made some 8,000 years ago out of polished obsidian, a naturally occurring glass that occurs when lava flowing from a volcano rapidly cools.

Later in much of the ancient world mirrors were made from highly polished metals such as copper, bronze, and gold. Given their materials, these mirrors were quite heavy and generally small and their reflections were not nearly as clear as found in modern mirrors. They were however quite useful for directing light into buildings or on occasion into the eyes of foreign armies. It’s even said that in 212 BC Archimedes used a set of mirrors to set fire to Roman ships attacking Syracuse.

Building on the 9th - 10th Century Syrian & Cyprian discovery of how to make clear glass, the modern mirror finds its origins in Europe’s Middle Ages. The challenge of mirrors was the ability to adhere molten metal to the glass without shattering it. The Florentines were the first to develop a technique for effectively doing so. Later the Venetians, with their spectacular glass skills would take over the mirror trade and would dominate the marketplace for a century. The Venetian secrets were extraordinarily valuable and craftsmen who sought to take their skills elsewhere often found it a short lived endeavor. When France’s Louis XIV convinced a group of Venetian artisans to share their secrets with France, Venice’s Council of Ten had them assassinated in Paris in 1667.

But by then the secret was out and a year later a French company, Compagnie du Noyer (today it’s called Saint-Gobain) was commissioned by Louis XIV to put the Venetian secrets to work in creating the mirrors for Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors.

As the King's extraordinary efforts might suggest, in the late 17th century mirrors were largely the provenance of the rich due to their high costs. In the early 18th century however the techniques for making mirrors had spread far beyond Venice and Paris and as a result mirrors became far more common among the non wealthy. In response to this extraordinary growth in the mirror marketplace, a wide variety of embellishments such as paint, gilding and carving found their ways into and onto mirrors, providing the wealthy with new ways to differentiate their objets d'art.

From solar power reflectors to the facades of 50 story skyscrapers to backdrops for far too many selfies, mirrors today remain a mainstay of modern life that we often take for granted… at least in the west:

Angie and Hugh were on a trip to Ghana when an older native gentleman struck up a conversation with them. Angie asked permission to take his picture, which he was happy to give. Once taken, she shared with him the picture on her camera’s digital screen. The man began to howl and laugh as he touched his face and hair. Apparently he hadn’t seen a mirror in many years and he was surprised to discover that his beard and hair had grown gray!

As objets d'art, mirrors are rarely taken for granted, and thankfully we are fortunate that's an area in which we have much experience. Below are some of our most fascinating mirrors… and a few that we only wish were ours!

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A Gorgeous Round Custom Made Eglomisé Sunburst American Mirror.

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A Greek Key American Wooden Mirror from the Early 20th Century with Antiqued Glass.

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A Pair of 19th Century French Trumeaux Mirrors with Eglomisé Shells

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The Hall of Mirrors in the Château of Versailles.

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Two Stunning Large Size Blue Glass Trumeau Mirrors Ornate With Eglomisé Arrows.

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Italian Mid 19th Century Gilded Sunburst Mirror.

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19th Century French Gilded Rectangular Mirror Adorned with Beautifully Carved Flower Urn and Pine Cones at the Crest.

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Ancient Egyptian bronze mirror decorated with two falcons in the collection of the British Museum.

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Italian 20th Century Gold and Silver Gilt Mirror with Richly Carved Wood with Old Mirror.

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Pair of Italian Early 20th Century Gilded Richly Carved Mirrors w/ Flower Urns Carving at the Top.

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Pair of Painted and Gilded Swedish Mirrors from the Early 20th Century. Were used in The Hunger Games Movies, in Katniss' Victor's House.

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The four story Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art, designed by architect Farshid Moussavi

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Italian Early 20th Century Venetian Mirror with Original Glass with Etched Details 

and Lovely Crown.

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Modern, Whimsical Mirror Painted with Gold and Silver Gesso.

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The "Verona" Venetian Style Mirror

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A Roman Silver mirror discovered in the ruins of an ancient villa at Boscoreale, near Pompeii, in southern Italy.  It is part of what's called The Boscoreale Treasure and most pieces are in the Louvre and the British Museum.  

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The "Octagonal" Venetian Style Mirror.

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Very Large 18th Century Italian Carved And Painted Mirror, Flanked by Two Fluted Pilasters Surmounted by Voluted Capitals. Profiled Molding. New Antiqued Glass.

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American Hand-Carved Painted Wood Mirror from the 20th Century.

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French Window Frame Painted Wood Palladium Mirror. Mid 20th Century (Circa 1930)

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Chicago’s Cloud Gate sculpture by artist Anish Kapoor

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King vs. King: A Tale of Two Styles

Beheaded at the age of 38 in the midst of the French Revolution in 1793, King Louis XVI had both a short life and a relatively short reign. His presence however is felt two centuries later in places far from Versailles. One of the most important ways is in the modern world of design…

While Louis XVI period furniture can be found, there is a far larger universe of pieces that are inspired by his style. One of the significant aspects of that universe are Gustavian pieces. Gustavian pieces are named after King Gustav III of Sweden. In 1771 the future king returned home to Sweden after having spent time at the Court of Versailles then under the reign of Louis XV. While there he became fascinated with French culture and style, which at the time was transitioning from the rich, ostentatious Rocailles style (known as Rococo outside France) that prevailed under Louis XV to the more restrained Neoclassical style inspired by the discoveries made at Herculaneum and Pompeii, that would come to be known as the Louis XVI style.

Although highly influenced by what was happening in France, Gustav’s interpretation of Neoclassism resulted in an even more subtle style, not to be confused with simple, however. Characterized by straight lines, tapered legs, beveled corners, and gold leaf, Gustavian style was initially found only in royal palaces. As the style became better known it became more popular in the homes of average Swedes, albeit with less expensive woods and paint replacing the gold leaf. Paint, which had always been popular in Swedish furniture, took on a life of its own with the Gustavian syle, finding its expression in finishes of various forms such as faux marble, stenciling and a wide variety of pastels. These less expensive materials and techniques helped make the Gustavian style commonplace in 19th century Sweden.

The Gustavian period, which begins in the last quarter of the 18th century, is commonly understood to have ended in 1810. From that point forward, while many of the techniques of the Gustavian period continued to be practiced, they slowly gave way to the richer Napoleonic Empire inspired characteristics of the Karl Johan period that spanned from 1820 to 1845.

Before we take a look at Karl Johan however, let’s take a somewhat closer look at the Gustavian style itself:

• Paint, paint, paint! It's the first thing one thinks about when it comes to Gustavian today. The ubiquitous use of lighter colors had two purposes:
  
  1) Fir trees, which were abundant in Sweden, produce a less expensive and less robust wood than that which carpenters and furniture makers in much of Europe used. As such, paint often disguised the fact that a common wood was being used.
  
  2) It’s dark in Sweden in the winter! The lighter, softer colors seemed to help maximize what light there was, helping to brighten rooms and moods during the very short winter days.
• Tapered legs, reeded doors and panels, beveled sides, and the usual Louis XVI rosettes and stylized leaves on chair / sofa legs. In addition egg and dart motifs as well as running dog patterns on sofa rails. All of these are elements are commonly found on pieces from the Gustavian period and in the Gustavian style.

Of course, the above are just the beginning of a detailed work on what it takes to describe Gustavian style… but this is blog and not a book! And now on to Karl Johan! Karl Johan, formerly Napoleon’s ambassador in Vienna, would become King of Sweden (as Charles XIV John) in 1818 after having served as regent and head of state beginning in 1810. He would rule until his death in 1844. Much in the way Gustav influenced the previous period of Swedish design, Karl Johan would influence the period that would span the following 25 years. In design the pendulum often swings from subdued to rich and back again. Just as Gothic gave way to Renaissance, Gustavian was supplanted by Karl Johan, a slightly richer version of that same Neoclassical style. Just as Gustav toned down the Louis XVI style when he brought it to Sweden, Karl Johan similarly toned down some of the exuberance of Napoleon’s Empire style when he brought it to Sweden.

Here’s a quick look at some of the things that distinguish the Karl Johan style.

• Classical details in abundance. Gilt Bronze details of Classical subject matter. Reclining figures, ladies in various poses, urns, Corinthian capitals, etc.
• Wood. Back is the use of stained and finished wood surfaces. Beautiful veneers of expensive and robust woods, ie; Elm, Mahogany, Birch, and various burl types. Solid wood was also used widely.
• Few drawer pulls! Many Karl Johan chests frustrate owners with the fact that they come with a center keyhole and escutcheon and nothing else, forcing the user to pull the drawer open with the key. Maddening to some!
• Beautiful chair styles. The use of veneers and solid wood on the wonderful armchairs from the Karl Johan period very much set them apart from the previous style.
• Saber legs. Another classical detail. Some armchairs combine both saber and Louis style legs, further confusing the buying public. Most of these are not from the period, but late 19th century copies. Many are extremely well done.

Of course this isn't meant to be an exhaustive or detailed description of all the styling cues of either period in Swedish furniture making... we’ve really only scratched the surface! Here’s the thing… where you have people working with creativity and spontaneity, sometimes it’s difficult to "pigeon hole" items definitively into one period or the other. There are no hard and fast rules that command that a pieces is absolutely of one style or the other. Nonetheless, despite the overlap and a lack of an absolute distinction between the two styles, they do represent two largely different periods in Swedish design and we are happy that we come across pieces from both regularly.

So now… which is which?  Both are painted, so that doesn’t help…  The lines are often blurred between the two styles, however, there are some clues:  The Karl Johan on the right has big sturdy feet while the Gustavian piece on the left has narrow, tapered and angled legs.  In addition, the Karl Johan piece has a scalloped bottom rail while the Gustavian piece is all about pure, clean lines.
A detail of the scalloped bottom and heavy foot of our Karl Johan chest.
This one is a bit easier.  The wood finish on the left pretty much gives away that the pair are in the Karl Johan style while the lightly painted chairs on the right are indeed Gustavian.  Additionally, the Karl Johan chairs have saber legs and volute arms while the Gustavian chairs have tapered legs topped with rosettes.  Once again we see the Karl Johan with the curvy lines while the Gustavian has the pure, straight lines and the typical Louis XVI decorative vocabulary.
A close up image of the rosettes and fluted legs of our Gustavian chairs.
In this case the legs don’t give us a clue to the styles as both of these sofas have tapered legs.  There are however some other cues to which style they belong.  The Karl Johan piece on the left has slightly slanted arms and lyre carved slats while the delicate motifs found on the top rail and skirt of the sofa on the right and the simplicity of its lines indicate the Gustavian style.
This image provides a wonderful look at top rail of the Gustavian piece.
And we’ve left the easiest for last!  The finished wood of the table on the left quickly suggests – but doesn’t guarantee – the Karl Johan style while the paint of the table on the right suggests Gustavian.  The Karl Johan’s legs are smooth and clean while the Gustavian table’s legs are fluted and feature rosettes on the knees.
This is the detail of the rosettes and the tapered, fluted legs of the exquisite Gustavian table.