Verre églomisé

This lovely old mirror graces our living room (or drawing room, if you are reading this in England.) This particular style is known as verre églomisé, which refers to the French method of gilding the back side of glass with gold or metal leaf.

I love mirrors -- not to gaze into, but for the reflected light they add to a room. I especially love old mirrors, with their mottled surfaces that create a beautiful, soft glow.

I purchased this piece some years ago from Wayne Pratt, an antique dealer not far from where we live in Connecticut. Right around that time, he found himself in the center of quite a controversy, when he became embroiled in a lawsuit over an original Bill of Rights.

According to a news story in the Boston Globe, "The document was a draft that President Washington dispatched in 1789 to encourage North Carolina to ratify the US Constitution. It had been missing from Raleigh, N.C., since the end of the Civil War, and resurfaced in 2000 when ... Mr. Pratt bought it from two Connecticut women for $200,000.

Following a legal battle with the FBI, which seized the document in 2003, Mr. Pratt relinquished his ownership claim and donated it to North Carolina. In return, federal authorities agreed not to prosecute Mr. Pratt on criminal charges and dropped a federal lawsuit."

I wonder if this mirror was privy to any of those shady dealings!