Are these mirrors held in the hand?

Some are. Small silver, tortoiseshell, bronze and ebonised vanity and double-sided mirrors appear across the samples, about a dozen of them, usually a few inches across. More often the word describes the making. "Carved" and "painted" each appear in 27 titles, and "wall" in 21, so the framed hanging mirror dominates the heading.

The dated field runs from 1800 to 1930, and 50 of the 110 listings carry a clean year. Three reach back into the 18th century. The largest single period entry is "19th Century", used 24 times, with "Victorian" used 6 times. Much of the dating here is a century rather than a date. Decade-level entries cluster around 1900, the 1920s and the 1910s.

What materials do the frames come in?

Carved oak, walnut, limewood, giltwood and gesso account for a large share, several of them Black Forest work. Oak alone is named in 9 titles. Beaten and hammered copper and brass make up the Arts and Crafts group, roughly one in eight. Wrought iron, cork, painted silk and mother-of-pearl inlay each appear as one-offs.

Which makers are found on them?

None. A pass through the descriptions for maker names returned nothing that holds up as a category. What identifies a piece instead is the work and the material: the subject of the carving, the gilding, the type of metal, and on silver hand mirrors the hallmark year.

Do sets and pairs come up?

They do, but rarely. Two listings of four octagonal hand-painted wall mirrors appear, along with pairs of pier mirrors, pairs of Regency giltwood ovals and a pair of Indian mirrored sconces. Multiples sit above comparable singles across the range.

Where were they made?

The bulk is European, with Regency pier glasses, Black Forest carving and Arts and Crafts copper running through the samples. Non-European pieces turn up across a wide spread but in ones and twos: Japanese bronze, North Indian, Kashmiri, Syrian Damascus mother-of-pearl and Anglo-Indian teak.

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Antique Hand Mirrors

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A group of antique mirrors listed under the "hand" heading, where the word usually points to the work in the frame - hand-carved, hand-painted, hand-beaten - rather than a handle to hold.