Mirrored furniture

Mirrored Furniture

Ellen McGarrigle – FURN 307 – Fall 2015

Convex Mirrors Early metal-coated mirrors were cut sections of blown glass, and therefore convex in shape. These convex mirrors were functional as mirrors, but distorted shapes slightly and tended to be relatively small. We can see evidence of this in the paintings The Arnolfini Portrait (c.

1434) by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck and Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror (c. 1524) by Italian Renaissance artist Parmigianino.

Flat Mirrors The Venetians discovered a method for creating flat mirrors, and heavily guarded this secret. When the secret leaked, European manufacturers perfected a method of coating glass with an amalgam of tin and mercury.

At this time, the production of mirrors was expensive and dangerous, so the mirrors themselves were considered a luxurious status symbol.

Because mirrors were so valuable, much effort was put into creating the frames that would hold and protect them.

Mirrors from 1685-1710

Mirrors appear in furniture Candles were frequently mounted next to wall mirrors so that the mirror would reflect and multiply the light from the flame.

Mirror panels began to appear on furniture for the same purpose, to reflect light in a room.

On a large piece of furniture, the presence of one or two mirrors would seem to make the room larger and the furniture object smaller.

Italian secretary, ca. 1730-1735

In almost the opposite, some shelves and cases featured a mirror as its back panel. This mirror would reflect back the interior of the piece, and anything housed within it. This reflection would appear to double whatever was on the shelves, and the collection inside the cabinet.

French cabinets with mirrored shelves (from right), 1882, 1775-80. Â

These American pier tables (1825-1835) feature a mirror back panel to make the shelf appear twice as deep as it actually is.

Secretary attributed to workshop of Duncan Phyfe, 1835-1845

High shine in Art Deco and Bauhaus With the development of commercial chrome plating around 1920, furniture had a whole new look. Chrome, silver, and stainless steel were used heavily in Art Deco and Bauhaus furniture and housewares.

Side chair, 1900-1915

Table lamp, 1930

“Wassily” chair by Marcel Breuer, 1925

Silver and ebony teapot, 1924 Chrome bud vase, 1936

Contemporary Mirrored Furniture Â

Contemporary mirrored furniture combines the way that mirrors were used in 18th and 19th century furniture with the shine of Art Deco and Bauhaus. It invokes the glamorous feel of Art Deco with the modernity of Bauhaus. Rather than just the high shine finish, contemporary mirrored furniture is assembled using cut sections of flat mirror glass, ensuring the reflection and brightness of the two previous styles combined. The main difference is that contemporary mirrored furniture is completely covered with this mirror mosaic. But think of it as any other finishing technique. A lot of mirrored furniture takes its actual furniture from another style; simple or complex, contemporary or hundreds of years old, and applies the mirrored surface without changing the form at all.

This trend of covering furniture entirely with mirrors is new, but we can understand where it came from pretty easily. We are familiar with covering walls with mirrors to make a space seem larger, so why not furniture? Especially with large pieces that can seem to take up a lot of space in a room, such as a desk, the mirrored surfaces simply reflect back the room around it and let the desk blend in.

This visual lightness is unique to mirrored furniture.