{"product_id":"art-deco-gilt-metal-hand-mirror-graduated-green-and-cream-enamelled-back-with-gold-pinstriping-stepped-fan-palmette-and-reeded-handle-bevelled-plate-c-1925-1940","title":"Art Deco Gilt-Metal Hand Mirror, Graduated Green and Cream Enamelled Back with Gold Pinstriping, Stepped Fan Palmette and Reeded Handle, Bevelled Plate, c. 1925–1940","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA hand mirror in gilt metal, rectangular with canted corners, and decorated on the back rather than the front.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003eplate is bevelled\u003c\/strong\u003e — a wide ground-and-polished chamfer running the whole way round, which catches the light as a bright line inside the frame.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe frame itself is narrow and carries a \u003cstrong\u003efinely chased leaf-and-dart band\u003c\/strong\u003e along its face, unbroken round all four sides.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt the join, the frame drops into a \u003cstrong\u003estepped fan palmette\u003c\/strong\u003e: three tiers of shoulder narrowing down to a small fluted fan, and below it a long \u003cstrong\u003etapering handle reeded in parallel lines\u003c\/strong\u003e, rounded at the end.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe back is the decorated face. A \u003cstrong\u003ecream field runs down the centre\u003c\/strong\u003e between two \u003cstrong\u003ebands of green shaded from deep jade to pale\u003c\/strong\u003e, each separated from the cream by a fine gold pinstripe. The shading is graduated rather than flat — sprayed, not brushed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt the centre of the cream field sits a \u003cstrong\u003esmall green oval plate pierced with two slots\u003c\/strong\u003e, fixed through the panel by four bent prongs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis is the surviving third of a dresser set.\u003c\/strong\u003e A basic set was three pieces — brush, comb and hand mirror — and an elaborate one added manicure tools, a perfume atomizer, a powder box, a lipstick case, a button hook and a shoe horn, all matched, all sold together.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe mirror is the piece that survives, and there is a mechanical reason.\u003c\/strong\u003e A brush loses its bristles. A comb loses teeth. A mirror has no wearing part at all — nothing on it is consumed by use — so a century later the mirrors turn up constantly and complete sets almost never do.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe 1920s and 30s were the high point of the whole category\u003c\/strong\u003e, the period of greatest variety and quality in vanity-set design. The best sets committed to a single material throughout — brass, enamel, silver or Bakelite — rather than mixing, and they were bought as wedding and graduation gifts and handed down.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThen the dressing table disappeared and took the category with it.\u003c\/strong\u003e Through the 1950s and 60s makers moved to plastic and simpler designs as vanity tables became obsolete: grooming shifted to the bathroom, to a fixed mirror over a basin, and a mirror you hold in your hand stopped being something anyone used every morning. What had been a daily object became an ornament, which is what this one is now.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe fan is the period signature.\u003c\/strong\u003e Stepped shoulders narrowing to a small fluted fan is the Art Deco motif, and it is the same shape scaled up and down across the decade — a cinema proscenium, a radiator grille, the setback of a skyscraper. On a mirror it does structural work too, spreading the load from a narrow handle into a wide frame.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe bevel is a separate operation and a mark of quality.\u003c\/strong\u003e Grinding and polishing a chamfer round four sides of a plate, then silvering it without spoiling that edge, costs real work on a piece of glass that would function identically flat. It exists for one reason: the line of light it makes at the border.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe green is airbrushed, and that is a date in itself.\u003c\/strong\u003e The shading from deep to pale in a single band cannot be done with a brush; it is sprayed. The airbrush was the decorator's tool of the Deco decades, and the graduated band it produced shows up everywhere in the period — on radios, on tins, on cocktail glasses, on this.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe mirror carries \u003cstrong\u003eno maker's mark, stamp or label\u003c\/strong\u003e anywhere and is offered \u003cstrong\u003eunattributed\u003c\/strong\u003e. Dated on the stepped fan palmette, the reeded tapering handle, the airbrushed graduated enamel with gold pinstriping, and the bevelled plate: \u003cstrong\u003ec. 1925–1940\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n  \u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eArt Deco hand mirror, the surviving mirror from a dresser set. Approx. 11 in long overall; head approx. 5½ in by 4½ in.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eRectangular head with canted corners dropping through a stepped fan palmette into a long tapering handle reeded in parallel lines with a rounded end\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDecoration\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eChased leaf-and-dart band round the frame face; reverse panel in airbrushed graduated green shading deep jade to pale, flanking a cream centre field, divided by fine gold pinstripes, with a small slotted green oval plate prong-set at the centre\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eGilt metal with an enamelled reverse panel and handle; bevelled silvered plate glass\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eNone. No maker's mark, stamp or label. Offered unattributed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ec. 1925–1940. Dated on the stepped fan palmette, the reeded tapering handle, the airbrushed graduated enamel with gold pinstriping, and the bevelled plate.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eFair to good, sold as a decorative piece to be displayed face up, with faults on the reverse stated in full. \u003cstrong\u003eThe mirror face is the good side\u003c\/strong\u003e — the plate is bright and clear with no cracks and no chips, the bevel is clean the whole way round, the glass is firmly set, and there is only light spotting to the silvering at the extreme edges. The frame and handle are sound and straight with nothing loose. \u003cstrong\u003eThe reverse carries significant damage.\u003c\/strong\u003e There are several amber liquid rings and splash marks across the cream field, of the kind left by a bottle of scent or varnish remover standing on it; the cream ground has yellowed and is finely crazed throughout; and there is a patch of loss at the lower edge. \u003cstrong\u003eThe handle has flaked\u003c\/strong\u003e, with several losses through the green to the gilt metal beneath, heaviest toward the end. No cracks, no repairs and no restoration. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA hand mirror is one of the very few antiques that lies flat and reads as a picture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSet it face up on a dressing table, a console, a bathroom shelf or a stack of books and it stops being a grooming tool and becomes a small bright rectangle in a room that did not have one. It takes whatever is above it — a ceiling rose, a lamp, a window — and the bevel throws a hard line of light round the edge that a flat plate cannot produce.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is also the best tray in the house for small things. Rings and earrings at a bedside, cufflinks on a dresser, a watch by a sink. Anything you put on it appears twice, which is why florists and stylists stand candles and small vases on mirrors and have done for two hundred years.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe shape carries at a distance. The stepped fan and the reeded handle read as Art Deco from across a room, before any detail is legible, and gilt metal against dark wood or a painted surface is one of the easiest contrasts there is.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHung by the handle on a picture hook, alone or in a group of three, it works as wall decoration and gives back a bit of light to a dim hallway.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd it still does the job it was made for. The plate is clear and undistorted; if you want a mirror to check the back of your own head against a bathroom glass, this is a better-looking one than anything sold new.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA note on care, and the first rule is the one that caused the damage already on it. \u003cstrong\u003eNever put anything wet on the back, and never clean it with solvent.\u003c\/strong\u003e The rings across the cream panel were made by a bottle standing on enamel, and ammonia, acetone and alcohol will lift what is left of that finish immediately. Dust the reverse with a soft dry cloth and stop there.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eClean the glass by spraying the cloth, never the mirror.\u003c\/strong\u003e Liquid run to the edge of an old plate wicks in behind the silvering and lifts it, and that black creeping edge cannot be reversed. Wipe inward from the border, not outward.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDo not attempt to touch in the flaked handle with paint; a fresh colour beside an aged airbrushed enamel is far more conspicuous than the loss it covers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStore or display it flat, face up, or hang it — standing a hand mirror on its handle in a crock is how the glass eventually meets the floor.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48047038726249,"sku":"VE-0739","price":78.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/DF954C75-8EB4-4662-98BC-183BB4AC944B.jpg?v=1789275568","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/art-deco-gilt-metal-hand-mirror-graduated-green-and-cream-enamelled-back-with-gold-pinstriping-stepped-fan-palmette-and-reeded-handle-bevelled-plate-c-1925-1940","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}