Pair of Murano mirrors with flowers circa 1730

Very few examples of mirrors decorated in three dimensions survive from the first phase of mirror production in Murano. After Murano began producing precision-cut flat glass mirrors at the end of the seventeenth century, initially designed with chracturally mounted and overlapping flat glass elements, engraved and sometimes acid-etched, edged with fine glass rods or pearls, then accentuated with corner rosettes, leaf cartouches and flowers, Murano ventured into more complex structures in the 1730s.
With the experience of the glassworks, where three-dimensional elements, often polychrome, were produced to satisfy the growing demand for decorative chandeliers, glass elements and glasses, they also began to complement mirrors with this type of decoration. The result was the polychrome decorative mirrors that are still in great demand today, and which have been made in Murano for almost three hundred years.
The pair presented here, which has also been restored in a museum, is one of the rare examples of the first phase of this family of products.