Are Venetian mirrors always made in Venice?

The type is associated with the glasshouses of Venice and Murano, where mirror plate and decorative glass were made from the Renaissance onward. Carved and gilded Italian rococo and baroque frames belong to the same decorative tradition. Both forms were widely reproduced in the style afterwards, and dealer titles usually say Venetian rather than naming a place of making. Murano appears in only 8 of 234 titles.

How old are most of these mirrors?

The dealer-entered dates run 1800 to 1960. The early twentieth century is the real centre of gravity: 46 listings in the 1920s, 29 in the 1930s, plus 24 in the 1900s and 16 in the 1910s. A loose "19th Century" label covers 59 listings, and Victorian and Edwardian turn up as period words rather than dates. Thirteen listings carry an eighteenth-century date, with one sample titled seventeenth century.

Which makers signed Venetian mirrors?

The archive yields no maker names at all. Nothing in these listings is stamped, labelled or even attributed to a glasshouse or workshop. Dealers describe them by form, decoration and date instead: etched, cut, engraved, giltwood, overmantle, cushion.

What is an overmantle mirror?

A wide mirror made to hang above a fireplace. The word appears in 15 titles, and the biggest overmantles sit near the top of the sampled range. Pier glasses and pillar mirrors show up in the same part of the category, tall rather than wide, made for the wall between windows.

Do these mirrors come in pairs?

Fourteen titles mention a pair, roughly one listing in twenty. Pairs occupy the top of the sampled range, and the highest listing of all is a pair of eighteenth-century Murano glass mirrors. Smaller forms turn up as pairs too, including a pair described as "gypsy" mirrors.

What unusual forms turn up in this category?

Beyond the wall mirrors, listings include swing dressing mirrors, a triptych folding dressing mirror, a cheval mirror and dressing table mirrors. Some oddities surface only once each: a mirror with a clock built in, an Art Deco cut-glass wine tray with mirror, and a velvet-covered mirror. Recorded heights are uncommon, but where given they run to about 98cm and 131cm, with one oval noted at 74cm.

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Antique Venetian Mirrors

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A wall mirror framed in worked glass or carved giltwood in the Italian taste, made to bounce candlelight around a room and show off the glassmaker's hand.