Beautiful, Large Viennese Mirror

In orig­i­nal, stun­ning­ly excel­lent con­di­tion with an over­all rich foli­ate and orna­men­tal dec­o­ra­tion. The big faceted mir­ror plate is sur­round­ed by abun­dant­ly embell­ished etched cut glass seg­ments and run­ning cut glass bead and ellip­tic ele­ments in the bor­ders. The sur­mount is com­posed of scrolling foli­ate seg­ments and a fine­ly etched cen­ter. Divid­ing glass blos­soms and leaves ele­ments placed on top of the mir­ror seg­ments com­plete the ele­gant appear­ance of this beau­ti­ful piece.

Mir­rors of this size and qual­i­ty, and of the Venet­ian style, adorned many salons in the new­ly emerg­ing Ringstrasse Palais at the end of the 19^th cen­tu­ry. They were man­u­fac­tured in the arti­sanal glass fac­to­ries of the crown lands of the Hab­s­burg Empire, which were at their peak, and also reflect­ed the cos­mopoli­tan mind­set of the archi­tects and builders of these Vien­nese Ringstrasse palaces, home to the inter­na­tion­al fam­i­lies of mer­chants, man­u­fac­tur­ers, and bankers. These so-called ​“Ringstrasse Barons” were like plan­ets revolv­ing around their sun, and this sun was the Emper­or and the House of Habsburg.