Decorative

Mirrors, sculpture, porcelain the field of collecting that adds the decoration to our homes is endless.

Murano glass: in 1507, two inhabitants perfected the manufacture of glass mirrors. However, the majority of mirrors of this period continued to be steel and had to be covered with curtains or shutters to prevent oxydisation. The production of clear looking glasses, in England, in the early 17th century received a setback when the burning of wood for manufacture became prohibited due to forests becoming depleted, and coal was substituted. As a result mirrors were often marked with spots due to the action of the coal fire on the lead flux contained in the mixture to back the glass.  By second  half of the century mirrors had started to play their part in interior decoration, although still extremely costly.

Gilding, the origin of the art is lost somewhere in antiquity. The process of beating gold to a layer so thin that it can be applied to a prepared surface is seen on Egyptian mummy cases around 1700 BC. There are two main methods of overlaying with gold leaf; oil gilding and water gilding, the former is the simpler and cheaper of the two and cannot be burnished, unlike the more time consuming and costly water gilding. 

The earliest know bronze sculpture is The Dancing Girl, discovered in the 1920's in modern day Pakistan, this diminutive nude is only 4 inches tall and was formed using the lost wax casting method some 2000 years BC. She now resides in a museum in India.

Whatever you choose to collect and decorate your home with, I hope that you enjoy your personal journey to creating a unique and emotionally rich interior.