Looking glass (one of a pair)

1780-1810

or possibly modern

Measurements

40-1/4 in x 15-1/2 in x 1-1/4 in

Materials

Gilded gesso on unidentified wood, mirrored glass

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, gift of H. Rodney Sharp

Accession Number

1958.3287

Provenance

Ex coll. H. Rodney Sharp

Comments

This pair of looking glasses incorporates many neoclassical decorative features.  Foremost, the mirrored glass is oval in shape with beaded borders.  Above, it has a fluted column supporting an urn lamp with a flame at the top.  Festooned bell flowers affixed to wires tie the upper portion together visually.  Below the central glass is a small horizontal rectangular piece of mirrored glass.

Although the design vocabulary relates to work of the neoclassical style period, related wall mirrors have not yet come to light.  In this pair, the almost excessive decoration suggests the possibility that the looking glasses were made later, perhaps at the end of the 19th century, when many hand- or bench-made objects were made as accurate reproductions of earlier work.  The pair deserves further study.

Looking glass 1958.3287.1 was photographed.