Arts and Craft Antiques

Description

Early 19th century mercury glass sorcerers mirror. Ebonised oak frame in Georgian style and mercury glass mirror with 7 small reverse ground convex forms in an hexagonal pattern.

The sorcerers mirror was used in the ancient practice of scrying as a means of divining spiritual insight and guidance.
References to such practices can be found most notably in the works of Royal Alchemist John Dee, Astrologer and Seer Nostradamus and the Oracles of ancient Greece. As well as famous allusions to scrying in the works of Shakespeare, Tennyson's "Lady of Shallot" and the Grimm brother's "Snow White".

The frame has been broken and repaired in the past and portions of the mercury have dispersed with time. The back of the frame has been sealed and restored.
Mercury glass of this age poses no threat to health.