Looking glass

1840-1890

Measurements

22-7/8 in x 34-3/4 in x 2-1/4 in

Materials

Maple, mirrored glass; white pine (secondary wood)

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, The David Wilson Mansion, Inc.

Accession Number

1971.569

Inscription

“New Castle” is written in chalk on the back of a long framing member.  Large chalk numbers are written on two backboards.

Provenance

Bequest of Dr. and Mrs. J. Newberry Reynolds to The David Wilson Mansion, Inc., in 1942.

Comments

The rectangular looking glass has a molded frame made of highly striped maple.  Presently fitted to hang horizontally, the frame has holes for when it was oriented vertically.  Another striped maple looking glass with very similar molding profiles has an oral history of manufacture by Eneas P. John (see Margaret Berwind Schiffer, Furniture and Its Makers of Chester County, Pennsylvania [1966], 130, fig. 60).  Information about John is sketchy.  Schiffer reports that he was listed as a cabinetmaker in an 1849 Londonderry Township tax assessment and died c. 1862. Comparisons between the two looking glasses are useful for establishing date ranges only; similarities do not eliminate other possible makers and regions.  The “New Castle” chalk inscription on the backboards likely identified where the looking glass was once being shipped and not its place of origin.