Antique Mahogany Mirrors
A mahogany-framed looking glass: free-standing on the floor, tilting on a dressing table, or framed to hang on a wall above a fireplace or between windows.
Antique Mahogany Mirrors
Two forms split this category almost down the middle. Cheval mirrors, full-length glasses pivoting between free-standing uprights, take about a quarter of everything listed. Dressing, toilet and swing mirrors, small tilting glasses on a base and often with one to three drawers, take about the same again.
Mahogany came into English furniture-making in the early 18th century and became the standard timber for looking-glass frames. The forms answered plain needs: a tilting glass for the dressing table, a full-length glass to dress at, framed glasses to lighten a room.
The third block is mirrors made to hang. Fret-cut and moulded wall mirrors, ovals and arched frames, tall pier glasses for the wall between windows, and wide overmantels. Frames run from plain moulded mahogany through inlaid and crossbanded work to carved and parcel-gilt fretwork with pierced crestings.
Dating on Sellingantiques runs 1750 to 1950, though only around a third of listings carry a clean year. "19th Century" is the commonest period entry, and monarch names do much of the work, with George III named far more often than any other. Where a title says Georgian style, Georgian Revival or revival of any earlier fashion, the piece is a later reading of an older design, and several such carry an 1890-1910 date.
The Range
Form sets the floor and the ceiling. The bottom of the range is dominated by small dressing, toilet and swing mirrors, plain single glasses on a simple base. Cheval mirrors and pier glasses cluster through the upper half, and the highest entries are almost all one or the other.
After form, it's the frame. Pierced fretwork, carving and parcel gilding push a mirror up, and fret-cut crests with the long-tailed ho-ho bird recur through the middle and upper part of the range. Inlay does the same work: crossbanding, ebony stringing, marquetry and flame-figured veneer sit high, and titles pair them with words like quality.
On dressing mirrors, the base carries the interest. Serpentine and bowfront fronts and two- or three-drawer boxed bases stand above a plain glass swinging between two uprights. Scale tells too: large, tall and full length recur through the upper half, and pairs are scarce, with matched sets of fret-cut wall mirrors and pier glasses at the very top.
Antique Mahogany Mirrors Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for mahogany mirrors, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
Dealers on Sellingantiques date these from 1750 to 1950, though monarch names do much of the work: george appears in 213 titles.
Gillows
The Antique Mahogany Mirrors Glossary
- Cheval mirror
- A full-length glass pivoting between two free-standing uprights on feet. One of the two commonest forms in the category.
- Toilet mirror or dressing glass
- A small tilting mirror on a base, made to stand on a dressing table. Often has one to three little drawers.
- Swing mirror
- A glass hung on side screws so it tilts in its frame.
- Pier glass
- A tall narrow mirror made for the pier of wall between two windows. Overmantel, sometimes spelled overmantle, is the wide version made to sit above a fireplace.
- Parcel gilt
- Mahogany with gilding on selected mouldings or carved details only, rather than all over.
- Ho-ho bird
- A stylised long-tailed bird cut into a fretwork crest. It turns up again and again in the fret-cut wall mirror listings and nowhere else.
Antique Mahogany Mirrors: Frequently Asked Questions
What is a cheval mirror?
A full-length mirror that pivots between two free-standing uprights, standing on the floor on feet or a trestle base. It was made to dress at.
Cheval accounts for about a quarter of the mahogany mirrors listed on Sellingantiques, which makes it one of the two dominant forms. Robing mirrors and platform forms turn up as variants.
How old are most mahogany mirrors for sale?
Dealer dating spans 1750 to 1950. The commonest single period entry is the unspecific "19th Century", with Georgian, Victorian, Regency, Edwardian and 18th Century following.
Twentieth-century entries are substantial, with the 1900s and 1920s both well represented. A title reading Georgian style or Georgian Revival describes a later interpretation of an earlier design.
Why do titles say George III so often?
Reign names do much of the dating work in this category. George appears in over two hundred titles, George III alone in around a hundred and fifty, with William IV a distant second.
Decade buckets thin out fast by comparison. Dealers describe by reign or century more often than by year.
What is fretwork on a mirror frame?
Pierced, saw-cut scrollwork, usually on the frame's crest and apron. It forms a distinct sub-tradition within the archive, with fret and fretwork each named in around fifty titles.
The recurring motif is the ho-ho bird, a stylised long-tailed bird cut into the crest.
Are pairs of mahogany mirrors common?
No. Only nineteen titles mention a pair.
Where they do appear, matched or near-matched sets of fret-cut wall mirrors and pier mirrors sit at the very top of the range.
Do any unusual mahogany mirrors come up?
Working rather than domestic mirrors appear singly: shop-fitting and tailors' mirrors, gentlemen's outfitters' glasses, folding campaign and travelling mirrors, a shaving stand on a tripod, hall mirrors with a key box or towel rail.
Odd forms recorded once each include a skeleton oval dressing mirror, a spider mirror, a horseshoe glass and a pagoda-top mirror. Non-British frames are scarce in the record, with a few French, one Dutch marquetry group, a Swedish and an American pier mirror.