Antique Table Mirrors
A small free-standing mirror made to sit on a dressing table or chest, the plate tilting between two uprights, often over a shallow base fitted with a drawer or two for combs and trinkets.
Antique Table Mirrors
Small mirrors made to stand on a dressing table became common in Britain from the late 17th century, once plate glass could be made in usable sizes. They were personal grooming glasses, which is why the older name "toilet mirror" sticks to them. The tilting plate between two uprights, set over a small drawered base, is the form that lasted longest.
On Sellingantiques the mahogany swing mirror dominates. Seven in ten listings use the word "dressing" and nearly one in five uses "toilet", frequently both in the same title, for the same object. Mahogany accounts for a little under half of all titles. Plates are rectangular, oval or shield-shaped, and box bases carry one, two or three drawers, with serpentine and bow fronts recurring.
Beyond mahogany the timbers run wide in ones and twos: walnut and oak in numbers, then satinwood, rosewood, kingwood, amboyna, yew, harewood, burr maple, teak, Oregon pine, Swedish birch and Sorrento olive wood. A separate group stands on an easel or strut back rather than swinging between posts, and these turn up in brass, bronze, gilt metal, silver and porcelain. Sixteen titles mention silver, several with London hallmark years in the 1880s to 1900s.
Dating is mostly by reign or century rather than by year. Georgian and Victorian are the standard labels, with Regency close behind, and the dated field runs from about 1710 to 1940. Labels are applied loosely, so a title saying Georgian may sit against a Regency date in the same listing. Early 20th-century work shows up as triptychs with hinged side wings, Art Deco frames and 1920s and 1930s vanity mirrors.
Top And Bottom
Date and timber do most of the work. Early walnut, Queen Anne and George I, sits at the top of the range, along with lacquered mirrors on miniature bureau bases. Plain late-Victorian and Edwardian mahogany swing mirrors sit at the bottom. The eighteenth-century pieces, of which there are about fifty, hold the upper band; 1920s and 1930s examples hold the lower one.
Then the base and the surface. A serpentine front, which turns up in twenty-nine titles and clusters with George III, reads higher than a straight one, and bow, breakfront, concave and demi-lune outlines sit in that same band. Figured timber counts too: flame and figured mahogany, burr walnut, burr oak, satinwood and the exotics. Inlay, crossbanding and marquetry appear disproportionately in the dearer half.
Away from wood, worked metal and ceramic frames climb: sterling silver, gilt bronze, ormolu, champlevé, Limoges enamel, pewter and painted porcelain. Plain brass frames sit mid-range. Scale pulls the same way, with "large" in forty titles against "small" in fourteen, and the grand-scale examples described in the dearer band.
Antique Table Mirrors Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for table 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.
19th Century is the period label used most on Sellingantiques for table mirrors, with Georgian next and Victorian third.
The Antique Table Mirrors Glossary
- Toilet mirror
- The older name for a dressing mirror, in nearly one in five titles and often used alongside "dressing" in the same line.
- Swing mirror
- A plate pivoting on screws between two uprights, so the angle can be set and held.
- Box base
- The shallow platform beneath the uprights, fitted with one, two or three small drawers.
- Serpentine front
- A base with a wavy front line. Twenty-nine titles use it, usually paired with Georgian or George III.
- Shield shape
- A plate narrowing to a point at the base, a recurring late-Georgian outline in this category.
- Barbola
- Applied painted composition flowers on the frame, seen on a couple of 1930s examples.
Antique Table Mirrors: Frequently Asked Questions
What is a triptych dressing mirror?
A central plate with two hinged side wings that fold in against it. Eleven titles use the word, and related listings say triple, trifold or tri fold.
They fall mostly in the 1900s to 1930s, which puts them alongside the Art Deco and vanity mirrors rather than the Georgian swing mirrors.
Are table mirrors ever sold in pairs?
Very scarce. Three pairs occur across the whole archive: one in gilt metal, one Art Deco, and one in gilt bronze with marble.
Everything else comes singly.
How many come up for sale each year?
Around sixty-three reach the market on Sellingantiques in a year, and 210 different dealers have listed one.
That spread tells you something. It's a category almost every general furniture dealer touches at some point, rather than a specialism.
Which woods do these mirrors turn up in?
Mahogany accounts for a little under half of all titles, with walnut next and oak behind it. Satinwood appears in ten.
After that the list runs in ones and twos: rosewood, kingwood, amboyda, yew, harewood, laburnum, burr maple, Oregon pine, Swedish birch, teak and Sorrento olive wood.
Do unusual or foreign examples appear?
Once in a blue moon. A Dutch Delft mirror on a wooden backing, an Italian reliquary mirror, a Chinese Qing mother-of-pearl inlaid cheval, a Black Forest carved lime wood frame and a Murano glass frame of about 1925 each turn up.
The outright oddities appear once and nowhere else: a boot maker's mirror, a jeweller's plateau mirror, a pair of "sorcerer type" plateau mirrors, a scientific optical mirror and a campaign box mirror.
Why do period labels in titles disagree with dates?
Labels are applied loosely across this category. Several titles say Georgian while the dated field reads Regency, or the other way round.
Only 204 of 638 listings carry a clean year at all. The rest are placed by reign or century, and the largest single bucket is the broad "19th Century".
So the period word in a title is best read as an approximation.