Material: Ebonised

Data: c.1810-20,Regency Antiques
The thick Regency period ebonised porthole wall mirror having a beautiful foxed bevel edged mirror plate with ebonised slip, surrounded by a moulded ebonised frame with gilded corvetto balls, the whole with a good deal of character, patination and colour, surviving from the first quarter of the nineteenth century.

The mirror is in very attractive original condition. The original plate glass has a fair amount of attractive spotting and foxing as per the photographs. The ebonisation and gilding are original with all of the corvette balls present and there is a nice craquelure to the surface with some very small losses to the frame. The reverse shows most of the original paper backing.

The circular porthole shape was very popular in the Regency period and appeared in many forms, often with the addition of exotic animals, flora and other decoration. This one is unusual in that the frame is ebonised and yet the corvetto balls are gilded and it has ever been thus. Dante Gabriel Rossetti had two convex mirrors rather like this in his sitting room at 16 Cheyne Walk, London.

Of the kind of proportions that allow this beautiful mirror to be placed pretty much anywhere and see it lift the entire room.