Venetian mirror sumptuous, majestic, eternal

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The Venetian mirror is one of the most beautiful mirrors ever made. It is so splendid that one prefers to admire him rather than his own image. It is also a masterpiece to the extent that it is simply excellent.

The image that the Venetian mirror reflects is a perfect image, the effect of a technique of true masters.

Venetian mirror in silver horizontal glass

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For millennia, man seeks to know himself, to see his image, to observe himself. Before the chemical technique and the production of glass mirrors on the islands of Murano or Venice by glassmakers came into play, man first relied on nature.

Venetian glass mirror with a thin layer of metal and bordered with blue

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He first looked at his reflection in still waters, then used a volcanic rock rich in silica and later used polished copper and bronze.

Venetian glass mirror: opulent ornament upper part

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To succeed to have a clear reflection and without deformations of its image, it was necessary to find a flat surface which returns a perfect reflection. It all depends on the reflective power of substances that we will use to look at ourselves.

Venetian mirrors of exceptional beauty reflecting a lounge in blue tones

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Elements with a strong metallic luster such as silica, copper, bronze, silver, gold, tin, mercury or aluminum have a high reflectivity. Some of these elements are metals, others metalloids and some of the transition metals.

Venetian mirror in a Victorian bathroom

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Anyway, with time, they corrode, oxidize, blacken. Thus, several reasons explain the preference of some of these elements and not others: gold is very expensive, mercury is toxic, money blackens with time.

Venetian wall mirror: shine and pure elegance

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Tin, lead and bismuth alloys were also made, and later amalgams of tin and mercury, but the mercury had to be abandoned because it was very toxic. Amalgams with tin are called amalgam of tain, still used today, like amalgam of tin and lead.

Venetian mirror by designer Alberto Pinto

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It was then necessary to protect these elements against corrosion, oxidation, blackening, etc. In addition, the amount of metal used for the reflective surface was reduced to a thin metal layer such as a sheet that had to be able to attach to a plate so that it could stand up.

Blackened old Venetian mirror reflecting a stay

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The glass, given these qualities of solidity, durability and especially transparency (to let the light pass and be reflected by the metal layer), was the only material that could meet the protection requirements while serving as a plate to which the sheet of reflective substance could be attached.

Venetian mirror period late nineteenth century

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Initially, the glass was yellowish, rather translucent than transparent. It had to be transparent. This is where the Venetian glassmakers and especially those from the island of Murano come into play. The glassmakers have come up with a glass as clear as rock crystal. The Venetian mirror was born. Bright, beautiful, extraordinary.

Old Venetian mirror and French chairs in a living room

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Venetian mirrors majestic, sumptuous and wonderful

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The Venetian mirror has improved over time. Thanks to the evolution of chemistry and especially thanks to the German chemist Justus von Liebig who discovered that silver could be deposited on glass by chemical reduction of a solution of silver nitrate. From there, the Venetian mirror has become more affordable, more resistant … eternal.

Beautiful Venetian mirrors of all shapes

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The Venetian mirror of the 19th century is a mirror made of a glass plate of excellent quality, covered with a layer of silver salt. Today, the Venetian mirror uses the tain, that is to say the amalgam of tin and lead.

Venetian mirrors in luxury bathrooms

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With regard to tin, for making flat glass, the process used is the floating of the glass on a bed of molten tin.

Exceptional Venetian mirror in a bathroom

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The Venetian mirror is unique in the world because it reflects not only the material, the physical, but also the successions of historical events, the course of life, the appearance and disappearance of great men and women. He is the witness of time.

Old Venetian mirror in a modern interior and design

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As for the symbolism, the mirror returns a faithful and inverted image, which means that we see face to face with its defects. “Mirror, nice mirror, O faithful adviser …” said the beautiful and jealous Queen in “Snow White”.

Old Venetian mirror small but sumptuous

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Virginia Woolf wrote in “Mrs Dalloway” that the mirror gives meaning to her face. Le Clezio, in “Les giants”, compares the mirror to the impassive look of snakes while saying that “mirrors are your very eyes”, that is to say your gaze emptied of passion that arises on you who are devoured by passion and uncertainty.

Old Venetian mirror blackened with time

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The psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan calls the post-natal period, between 18 and 24 months, the “mirror stage”. The child who looks in a mirror begins to realize that he sees himself in the mirror. It’s the beginning of self-awareness and the appearance of feelings like pride, shame, empathy, inversion.

Old and luxurious Venetian mirror in an imposing interior

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“The pond … is also a mirror, a strange opaque mirror that doubles all aerial reality with an underground image”.

Old Venetian mirror reflecting the spirit of the times

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And it even seems that “… there have even been many people who have drowned in a mirror …”. We will end with this thought of Ramón Gómez de la Serna who writes it in his novel “Gustave the incongruous”.

Venetian mirror old, sumptuous, timeless

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Square glass Venetian mirror

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Octagonal Venetian mirror with mosaic at the edges

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Old Venetian mirror deformed reflecting without deformation

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Bright and beautiful old Venetian mirror

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Old Venetian mirror, beautiful and original

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