Deep Cove Wall Mirror, Dry-Brushed Black over Green and Gold, Gilt Fillet, c. 1950–1975

The Piece

A rectangular wall mirror in a deep cove-molded wood frame, finished in a dry-brushed black over green and gold with a gilt sight edge, the simple architectural frame that the better American mirror makers hung in halls and over consoles in the middle of the last century. The frame is a wide scoop or cove molding, rising from a flat outer edge and sweeping inward and down to the glass, so that the mirror sits deep in a shadowed well and the frame reads as a single sculpted band rather than a stack of moldings. The corners are mitered and tight. The finish is a layered one: a coat of dull gold under a coat of soft olive green under a dragged coat of black, each pulled through the one below with a dry brush so that the gold and the green show in long streaks across the cove and gather on the high outer edge, which has been rubbed to the gold. At the glass a narrow stepped fillet is gilt bright, drawing a thin gold line around the plate. The back is closed.

The frame is sound and square, with no splits at the miters and no losses to the molding. The finish is in excellent order, with the dragged brushwork intact and the wear confined to the outer edge where it was meant to be. The plate is clear and bright with a few faint spots at the margin under the fillet and no silver loss to speak of. The mirror is offered as found, cleaned and ready to hang; it will take a wire or a pair of D-rings on the back for hanging in either direction.

History & Provenance

The deep cove frame is one of the quiet staples of American interiors from the 1940s through the 1970s. Frame shops and mirror makers in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles ran the profile in long lengths and finished it to order, in gold leaf for the traditional rooms, in walnut for the modern ones, and in the dragged and antiqued paint finishes that decorators of the period used to make a new frame sit with old furniture. The black over green over gold of this one is the classic antiqued finish of that trade, laid on with a dry brush so that the colors beneath show through like the wear on an old painted surface, and the bright gilt fillet at the glass is the same trade's way of lifting the plate out of the dark frame. Mirrors in this frame hung over consoles and chests in the hall, over the mantel in a small living room and over the dresser in a bedroom, and they have come back into use because the profile is plain enough for a modern room and the finish is warm enough for a traditional one.

No maker's label is present and the mirror is offered as an unattributed American piece. The dating rests on the materials and the construction rather than style alone: the solid wood cove molding with mitered corners, the layered dry-brushed paint finish over a gold ground and the bright gilt fillet are all consistent with manufacture between about 1950 and 1975.

Product Details

Why It Belongs in Your Home

This is the mirror for an entry, a hall or over a chest of drawers, where the deep dark frame gives the glass a presence out of proportion to its size and the streaks of gold and green pick up whatever is in the room. It hangs either way, sits as well over a painted dresser in a cottage bedroom as over a walnut console in a mid-century living room, and the dragged finish lets it keep company with antiques, with modern pieces and with the bronze, brass and black iron of a collected interior. For a shop or designer client it is the ready-to-hang, decorator-finish mirror in the useful size that sells fast and fills the black and gold niche that buyers ask for.