Grand Gilt Mirror

Found in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, this late-19th-century French mirror has a gold frame carved with flowers at the corners and a generous original glass. Gilt mirrors like this hung over the mantel as the centerpiece of the front room, where they caught the lamplight and made a parlor feel twice as grand as it really was. The gold was gesso and gold leaf over wood, the old trick that gave an ordinary household the gilded look of a far richer one. Sylvie leans it against a wall rather than hanging it, where the gold and the old glass catch the light.