A New Antique Mirror for Cecile and Boyd's

Phew, check out the oxymoron in the title of this post...

OK, so greetings from the Cape Mirrors Studio again, where I've just completed silvering another magnificent antique mirror for Cecile and Boyd's. This was a record-breaking (for me) 2.3m x 1.1m bevelled mirror which stretched yours truly (and his equipment) to the limit. It's due to be mounted on a backing board and will head off to an exclusive apartment at the V&A Waterfront next month.

While cleaning up and polishing the front surface of any antique mirror I make, I always spend an hour or so checking every detail of my work. Yesterday, I was struck once again by the richness in the silver plate. The granular deposition of silver, interlaced with zinc creates the most wonderful sense of quiet atmosphere in the reflection. If Mark Rothko had ever painted on glass with pure silver, this meditation in texture would have been the result.

Since mirrors of this sort of size are painfully difficult to photograph, I took some detailed shots of the corners instead, where the granulation in the antique silvering is at its heaviest. They only show the first 50cm of the mirror, but they give you an idea of the texture. From thereon in, the silvering only gets smoother, quieter and more sublime. It's a joy to look at.

There are very few people in the world who actually know the secrets of making decent-looking antique mirrors. There are even fewer of us who can make antique mirrors that don't look as if they were 'antiqued'. At Cape Mirrors, we specialise in making that kind of antique mirror. Our mirrors are special. Like heirlooms, they capture the moods and feelings of another, much older time.

Antique Mirrors Online

Google has this very nice little feature that allows you to see all the news items related to a specific keyword search. So a couple of months ago, I set this up in my Google News headings, with the keywords "antique mirrors". I have been most pleasantly surprised by the results. I get new stories almost every day, demonstrating the demand for antique - or very good-looking antiqued mirrors. I wonder if they are as beautiful as the mirrors I make?

My biggest obstacle in this game is public awareness. Designers, decorators and the public at large at best have very vague notions of what distressed mirrors are, or what they can do for an interior. They go to large glass companies and are shown huge sheets of imitation antique mirror. This stuff is so horrible it makes you want to give up living. So every now and then it is heartening to see articles online on the arcane subject of antique mirror-making. They encourage people to go out, look properly and hopefully mail me for a quote. This article came by recently, from the UK - based Guardian newspaper. It contains links to other mirror-makers...check out some of those prices!

I enjoy seeing the work of other mirror-makers online. There are very few folk in the world who have this kind of knowledge. There are even fewer who can make an antiqued - or distressed mirror look 'right' while avoiding the feeling that it's just clever chemistry. In my opinion, there's a profound difference between something that looks like the splattering of paint-effect style antiquing, and the artistry that turns a silver plate into a profoundly atmospheric surface. You'll get that at Cape Mirrors, folks, and few places besides.