Victorian Japonisme Mirror with Applied Flowers, c. 1880

Originally ebonised, this unusual Victorian mirror reflects the influence of Japan in its stylised blossom-type flowers in gold with sinuous tendrils. The fashion for Japanese items started with the opening of the country in the Meiji Restoration of the 1860s. Japanese art was called an ‘art nouveau‘ and had a direct influence on the Art Nouveau movement during the 1890s.

The mirror has lost almost all of its ebonised finish and there is loss to the gilding on the flowers. Otherwise it is in good condition with its original mirror plate.