Bassett Mirror

With this book of patterns and instructions, woodworkers can recreate the antique look of period mirrors with all the conveniences of modern tools and ready-to-use patterns. Eighteen mirror patterns are included, copied directly from the original antiques dating from 1730 to 1885. Beginning with simple frame construction and moving on to more complex designs, this book takes woodworkers step-by-step through every part of the process to ensure woodworking success. Designs range from a Chippendale mirror in birds-eye maple to Queen Anne and Victorian mirrors. The five major styles of mirrors and frames explored are a simple mirror or picture frame without scrolls, a simple mirror with scroll at the top only, a simple mirror with scroll at the top and bottom, a mirror with scroll at the top and sides, and a mirror with scroll at the top, bottom and sides.

This engaging and witty cultural history traces the evolution of the mirror from antiquity to the present day, illustrating its journey from wondrous object to ordinary trinket. With its earliest invention, the mirror allowed us to gaze upon ourselves, bestowing a power both fascinating and terrifying. The classical myth of Narcissus warned of the dangers of self-reflection, while during the Middle Ages the mirror became associated with the soul and the seductions of the devil. Only in the 17th and 18th centuries did the mirror achieve true renown, reflecting brilliant light into the court of the Sun King and the parlor of Madame Pompadour. As science triumphed over art, the mirror lost some of its magical appeal, later restored with its role as metaphor for altered states of consciousness in Lewis Carroll's looking glass and Lacan's "mirror stage". Drawing on rich sources of history, literature, art and philosophy, Melchior-Bonnet recounts the story of the mirror as one of discovery and invention, commerce and intrigue. Through the works of such writers as Dante, St. Augustine, Flaubert, and Henry James, and its representations in the works of artists like Durer, Van Eyck, Leonardo, and Magritte, the author reveals our enduring fascination with reflection, the image that is at once the same, and not the same, as ourselves.