How to clean old cloudy mirror glass?

You can't clean the cloudy patches away. That fog isn't dirt on the surface. It is the old mercury amalgam backing oxidising and breaking down behind the glass. Dust the front gently with a dry cloth. Spraying modern glass cleaner risks moisture seeping behind the plate and accelerating the damage.

I have this tall mirror with two pieces of glass, one above the other, is it normal for them to overlap without a wooden bar between them?

That overlapping join is standard for early eighteenth-century pieces. Makers could only produce glass plates up to a certain size. To fill a tall frame, they had to stack two separate plates. Rather than adding a distracting wooden glazing bar, they bevelled the edges and overlapped the top plate slightly over the bottom one. This hid the join and kept the reflection relatively seamless.

Why are some frames painted white?

Many were painted white or pale grey during the twentieth century to suit changing interior fashions. Owners wanted a lighter look than the original worn gilding provided. Beneath that later paint, you'll often find the original water gilding. Stripping it back takes patience but usually reveals the intended eighteenth-century finish.

My console mirror has a large carved bird at the very top, but it looks like it might have been stuck on later. Did they originally come with these big carvings?

Yes, large cresting ornaments like ho-ho birds were standard features on mid-eighteenth century frames. They were carved separately and joined to the main structure with dowels or iron wire. It is common for them to look disjointed now. These prominent carvings frequently broke off over the centuries. A previous owner may have glued it back on out of alignment, or it might be a later carved replacement.

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Antique Console Mirrors

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Designed to hang above matching tables against the narrow wall space between tall windows, an antique console mirror is a tall decorative glass framed to reflect light back into the room.