Looking Glass Maker: Unknown

1730–70

American Decorative Arts

By appointment, Hume Furniture Study

Looking glasses were usually imported in the eighteenth century. Glass manufacturing in America was not sufficiently established to make plates of glass of suitable smoothness and clarity for silvering until the nineteenth century. Large looking glasses were expensive and were prized possessions in colonial homes. On this example, the scrolled crest accentuates the contours of the veneered surface.

Medium

Walnut veneer, spruce

Dimensions

56 5/16 × 20 9/16 in. (143.1 × 52.2 cm)

Credit Line

Bequest of Olive Louise Dann

Accession Number

1962.31.28

Geography

Probably made in England

Culture

British, probably

Period

18th century

Classification

Furniture

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Olive Louise Dann (1880–1961), New Haven, Conn., by 1959 (on loan to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 1959–1961); bequeathed to Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 1961
Bibliography
  • David L. Barquist, Elisabeth Donaghy Garrett, and Gerald W. R. Ward, American Tables and Looking Glasses in the Mabel Brady Garvan and Other Collections at Yale University (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), 299–301, no. 163, ill
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

looking glasses

Technical metadata and APIs

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