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Venetian Glass Mirror

Type Object Region Venice Time 1580–1590

Flat glass mirrors produced on Murano, Venice, were silvered on the back by the mercury amalgam method, reaching their technical peak in the 1580s;…

Timeline

  1. c. 1581–1584Murano · VeniceMirror-makers blew molten glass into cylinders or flat blanks, then cut, ground, and polished them into highly flat glass plates. By the 1580s Murano could produce larger rectangular mirror plates, laying the groundwork for silvering and framing; the craft secrets were strictly monitored by the Republic.
  2. c. 1584–1587Murano · VeniceArtisans laid tin foil on the back of the glass, then poured mercury to form a tin-mercury amalgam reflective layer, obtaining a bright mirror surface after pressing and drying. This method reached maturity in the 1580s, but mercury vapors greatly harmed the mirror-makers' health, so the process was confined to designated workshops on the island, closed to outsiders.
  3. c. 1587–1590Courts of Versailles and Madrid · FranceA single large Venetian mirror could cost as much as a merchant ship; monarchs of France, Spain, and the states of the Holy Roman Empire ordered gold-framed, carved mirror plates through Venetian envoys and merchants for palace halls and noble dressing rooms. Venice's mirror monopoly in the 1580s led various countries to secretly plot to spirit away craftsmen to steal the technique.

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