Collections Database

Description:
Looking glass or mirror with a walnut frame, with a replaced support on the back that allows it to be placed on a table or hung from a wall. The frame has an angular crest, with an oval framed portrait of a bewigged gentleman with a cravat and waistcoat painted on glass, surrounded with filigree designs on the gold-colored foil in the background. There are wide projecting corners, with wide bolection moldings covered with walnut veneer holding the original beveled glass. The smaller moldings on the frame were originally lined with the same gold-colored foil, of which some still remains. This mirror is an example of a large group of looking glasses made in Holland, north Germany, and Denmark throughout the eighteenth century for export, which were later referred to as courting glasses. Many were brought to New England and other coastal towns, usually pegged into their protective shipping boxes. These were often colorful with their painted glass borders and gold "Dutch metal" foil in the small moldings, usually missing today.

Subjects:
Enamel and enameling; polychrome

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+0280

Research on objects in the collections, including provenance, is ongoing and may be incomplete. If you have additional information or would like to learn more about a particular object, please email fc-museums-web@fivecolleges.edu.