By the late 1600s, the Venetian monopoly had run its course. The secrets of mixing the proper proportions of sand, soda, and salt had been diffused throughout Europe. Bohemia, France, Germany, and England made high-quality crystalline glass mirrors that rivaled the product of Murano and were less expensive. Their panes were also available in larger sizes. The French had invented an improved method of blowing glass into tubular sleeves, which could be cut lengthwise, unrolled, and cooled. The methods yielded panes far larger than the 40-inch maximum available from Murano, but the traditional Venetians did not adopt the new development. They continued to make looking glasses in the distinctive Venetian form, and these were highly prized. But their monopoly was over.
The most characteristic Venetian mirror is rectangular in form, with an arched cresting and a glass or mirrored frame. The frame can be two-dimensional and composed of many smaller glass panels, or three-dimensional with the panels raised into cubic facets or superimposed. The primary mirror is often beveled, and the smaller frame panels are sometimes beveled or etched on the front or the back. Some of the frames incorporate colored glass, usually cobalt blue in color, and are silvered on the reverse.
The frame of the Venetian mirror is usually made of pine, but other soft woods are sometimes used. Lead strips often fasten the glass panels of the frame. Venetian craftsmen admired the lead fasteners and strips that joined their work together, and these elements are often more visible than would be usual in mirrors from other European countries. The backing of the main mirror plate (or plates, if there are two) is usually made up of several wide boards which, like nearly all Venetian chests of drawers and cabinets, are traditionally mounted horizontally.
Buyers of these mirrors will find the current market filled with 19th-century reproductions of the most popular 18th-century styles, as well as modern imitations. In modern pieces, any beveling or etching on the plates will be very sharp. In older pieces, which were cut by hand, the lines are soft-edged. The glass in modern pieces will also reflect a harsh white color that is unlike the softer blue or yellowish-gray of the early pieces. The reflection of a white business card held up to a pre-Victorian mirror will never match the exact color of the card itself. Late 19th-century mirrors and modern reproductions will reflect the exact color of the original.
It was the French, whose workshops at Saint-Gobain were subsidized by Louis XIV, who officially ended the Italian dominance of the glass and mirror markets. The last of 306 silvered panes was fixed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles in 1684. All of the glass was made at Saint-Gobain. The plates were silvered in a separate workshop in Paris, sent out to the Versailles Palace, and installed with great fanfare. It was a triumph for the French and a disaster for the Venetians. The great Hall of Mirrors was discussed everywhere as either the newest wonder of the world or its most garish nightmare. What was certain was that the name of Murano was absent from the conversations. But history chooses its own favorites. Now, who has ever heard of the Louis XIV oactories at Saint-Gobain? And who has not heard of the tiny island of Murano, known for its famous glassworks?
