Reverse Glass Painting

This gilded glass (eglomise) panel is an accurate reproduction of the badly shattered original. Many of these early mirror panels are crudely done, but this gives them a primitive charm. This motif of a castle-like structure attached to a convential house appears often, and probably has its source in an early print.

This panel is much more sophisticated, and is an appropriate design for this refined Federal mirror.

The reverse painted mirror panels are often lost and replaced with mirror plate or a print. In cases like this, with no original to replicate, a design appropriate to the age and style of the mirror is selected.