How to hang heavy overmantle mirror safely?

Most sit directly on the mantelpiece to bear the main weight. You use heavy-duty mirror plates screwed into the back of the frame, which then secure into the masonry of the chimney breast. Never rely on picture wire across the back. Overmantles are simply too heavy, and wire pulls the top of the frame away from the wall.

My Victorian overmantle mirror has lost some of the gold on the raised bits and you can see a dull red colour underneath, should I paint over it?

Leave the red showing. That is the original clay bole layer sitting just beneath the gold leaf. It gives an antique overmantle mirror a softened, aged appearance that dealers actively look for. Painting over it ruins the historic surface. Modern gold paint looks flat and brassy compared to genuine water gilding. If the wear bothers you, a professional gilder can carefully touch up the worn spots.

Clean cloudy antique mirror glass?

You cannot wash the cloudiness away. The degrading happens on the back of the glass where the silvering reacts with moisture. Leave it as it is. Cloudy plates belong in an antique room setting.

I have an overmantle mirror but it doesn't have a wooden back on it, just grey paper, does this mean the glass has been replaced at some point?

It usually points to a later plate. Early mirrors often had solid timber backboards to protect the fragile silvering from damp plaster walls. Rough pine or deal boards are what you want to see. Sometimes a restorer removes rotten backboards and replaces them with heavy paper to keep dust out. Turn it over and look for empty nail holes along the back edge of the frame. That tells you wooden boards were once attached.

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Antique Overmantle Mirrors in East of England

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Sitting squarely above the fireplace to catch and reflect light back into the room, an antique overmantle mirror is a wide, often heavily framed glass designed specifically to span the width of a chimney breast.