Unknown
Looking Glass (one of a pair)

CultureEnglish or American
Titles
  • Looking Glass (one of a pair)
Datec. 1785–1820
Possible placeEngland
Possible placeUnited States
MediumGilded eastern white pine; composition
Dimensions55 5/8 × 23 1/2 × 4 5/8 in. (141.3 × 59.7 × 11.7 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.69.386.2
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Bayou Bend Dining Room
On view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

One of the earliest published references to looking glasses in America dates to 1729, when James Foddy, recently arrived in New York, advertised “Looking Glass-Maker, late from London Hath brought a Parcel of very fine Pier Glasses.” The designs employed by Americans were, predictably, derived from published sources and imported glasses. The form is arguably the least understood and studied in American decorative arts. Research has not sufficiently advanced to determine regional preferences, complicating a more precise identification. These superb glasses, fashioned entirely of eastern white pine, are inconclusively attributed to America or England.

Technical notes: Gilded eastern white pine; composition (figures).

Related examples: Only a small number of looking glasses have been microscopically analyzed. Those with a similar makeup are catalogued in Montgomery 1966b, pp. 269–71, 273–74, nos. 226, 227, 231; Rodriguez Roque 1984, pp. 260–61, no. 121; Barquist, Garrett, and Ward 1992, pp. 51, 318–19, no. 178.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.


ProvenanceMiddletown, Connecticut; [Charles Woolsey Lyon, New York]; purchased by William C. Hogg, New York, 1922; given to Miss Ima Hogg; given to MFAH, 1969.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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Looking Glass (one of a pair)
Unknown
c. 1785–1820
Gilded eastern white pine; composition
B.69.386.1
Looking Glass
Unknown
c. 1785–1820
Gilded spruce; eastern white pine, sylvestris pine, and composition
B.21.2
scan from file photograph
Unknown
c. 1785–1820
Gilded sylvestris pine and eastern white pine; composition and mirror glass
B.69.381
Looking Glass
Thomas Natt
c. 1835
Eastern white pine; composition, gold leaf, and mirrored glass
B.68.26
Card Table
Unknown American
c. 1820–1830
Grained, painted, and gilded mahogany, and birch; mahogany veneer on eastern white pine with black walnut banding, ash, eastern white pine, cherry, and original brass casters
B.68.31
scan from file photograph
Thomas Fentham
c. 1800
Eastern white pine, scots pine, spruce, composition, paint, gold leaf, mercury/tin amalgam mirrored glass
B.69.180
Looking Glass
Unknown English
c. 1785–1815
Mahogany and mahogany veneer; white pine, composition, gold leaf, iron, and mirrored glass
B.2008.14
Side Chair
John Philip Fondé
c. 1816
Painted and gilded ash; eastern white pine and white oak with reproduction moiré
B.2007.2
Sideboard
Joseph Meeks & Sons
c. 1825–1835
Gilded mahogany and mahogany veneer; white oak, soft maple, ash, eastern white pine, and yellow-poplar
B.67.6
Center, or Loo, Table
Unknown American
c. 1825–1835
Painted and gilded mahogany; mahogany veneer, yellow-poplar, and eastern white pine
B.67.7
Looking Glass
Unknown American
c. 1730–1760
Eastern white pine; jappaned decoration, mirrored glass
B.2001.5
Looking Glass
Charles del Vecchio
c. 1830–1837
Mahogany and cherry; eastern white pine, soft maple, brass, and mirror glass
B.90.16