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Our Mirrors
Old mirrors, with their soft focus and luminosity, are
the perfect partners of both contemporary and antique
furniture.
Between 1500 and 1800 Murano glassmakers refined glass
mirror production, exporting plates all over the world
in beds of straw and seaweed. They developed the Flemish
art of coating flat glass with tin foil and mercury. This
knowledge was passed to England towards the latter part
of the 18th century and larger-scale production then began
here. However, it was found that many mirror makers where
dying of mercury poisoning. In 1835 a German chemist,
Professor von Liebig, found that glass could be coated
with a solution of silver salts, this discovery, together
with new glass making processes, brought mirrors into
every aspiring home. Due to the extreme dangers, of the
use of mercury in the coating process, The French Government,
in 1850, made it illegal to coat mirror glass in this
manner and the ‘Liebig’ method was adopted.
Frame restoration as a process is a giddy combination
of Blue Peter and Archaeology. We try to be as faithful
as possible to the work of C18th - C20th craftspeople
whilst working with marvelous substances like glue, clay,
gold and all sorts of powders and potions. |
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