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DOE AND HOPE

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Item Details

The unusual nineteenth century continental hand mirror of celestial design, formed as a crescent moon and worked throughout in brass, the broad crescent frame being richly engraved with scrolling foliate ornament and applied with eight raised stars, enclosing the original crescent-shaped bevelled mirror plate, the inner edge incorporating a deeply modelled profile of the Man in the Moon, to a turned wooden handle with finely engraved brass mounts and terminating in an elaborate pierced and cast metal finial decorated with scrolling foliage and grotesque ornament.

The mirror survives in wonderfully evocative untouched condition. The original plate has some atmospheric foxing and losses to the silvering, while the brass retains considerable old surface, oxidation and accumulated patination. The reverse reveals the pleasingly rudimentary period construction, with the plate retained by small folded metal tabs and an unembellished sheet-brass backing. General wear, marks and minor movement commensurate with age, but the whole remains remarkably complete. Importantly, the wooden handle, engraved mounts and elaborate pierced terminal all appear integral to the original conception.

Celestial imagery enjoyed a particular fascination during the nineteenth century, drawing upon a much older tradition of anthropomorphising the sun and moon. Here the crescent is transformed into something considerably more eccentric than an ordinary dressing-table mirror: part functional object, part piece of fantastical sculpture. The combination of the sombre lunar face, scattered stars and unusually elaborate metalwork suggests a Continental origin and possibly an individually commissioned or very limited-production piece. Despite extensive searching, we have been unable to locate another identical example and is therefore possibly unique, although in the absence of documentary evidence it is safer to regard it as a presently unrecorded or extremely rare model.

A wonderfully strange and apparently exceptionally rare survival, combining celestial symbolism, superb decorative metalwork and a beautifully decayed original mirror plate; its extraordinary lunar profile gives it an almost folkloric quality, while the untouched reverse and elaborate handle construction reinforce its credentials as a genuinely unusual object.

• Period: c.1860-80
• • Price: £895.00
  • €1,045 Euro
  • $1,207 US Dollar
• Location: Buckinghamshire
• • Dimensions: H: 13cm (5.12in)
  • W: 6cm (2.36in)
  • D: 0.75cm (0.30in)