Gilded mirrors

Albert van Iperen is a furniture maker and a skilled restaurateur of antique furniture. His atelier is in an old monumental building that the municipality of The Hague assigned to promising artists. The Windsor Thonet chair, the one I applied in the last home staging project, came from his collections. When I visited his atelier I was thrilled by his assembly of cabinets, drawers and mirrors from the nineteen century.  Albert has a passion for antiques and in his enthusiasm he is willing to give you a small lecture about the heritage of each piece of his collections. I was rewarded for my interest in a mirror and learned the following interesting thing about mirrors from the second half of the nineteen century.

The glass they used in those days is much thicker than that of recent copies. Therefore the wooden frames needed to be solid in order to house the heavy mirrors properly. The frames were provided with a mixture of plaster and glue and this fundamental layer was an excellent basis for the gilding. The mirrors photographed by Albert have been gilded with silver instead of gold. On the two black frames you can see the difference in the aging process of the gilding. The frame without the mirror almost did lose its silver layer. The white frame is bare and shows the basis with the mixture of plaster and glue. Probably this info will help you in your search for old mirrors at local flea markets.

Good luck and send me a pic of your new mirrored purchase!