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.