I think it looks kind of like this English chippendale mirror. Circa 1760-1770

It looks like a chippendale style mahogany mirror. I can't quite tell from the glass picture, but it looks to have a better reflective quality than the one beck is sharing with us (lovely piece) which is probably a mercury mirror verses a silvered mirror. (Mercury gets darker over time and didn't cast as good of a reflection as a silvered mirror). Today's mirrors are aluminum by the way :)

I have to say I love the back piece...what a lovely piece of wood.

What do you know palimp? :OP

The silvering, whatever it is is very bubbly...and the finish is very bubbly, especially on the back. I am wondering if that is a band of yew on the perimeter.

But it's still more silver than gray...although it sometimes takes an inperson view to actually see the difference because the reflective value is so important.

These were often gilded. I would expect that there would be more gilding on it actually but it might be a simple one, or it may have been lost over time...or that band might be it. Inlayed woods were popular as well though in the early part of that centry, so that's a possiblity. It's so hard to tell from a pic.

So is this one you're thinking of picking up?

Very early mirrors were made with sliver backing, which faded and mostly ( nothing is absolute!) did not bubble. Later mirrors were backed with a mercury or an amalgam, but that process was discontionued because of the difficulty in sealing the mecury backing.
About 10 years ago I was priviledged to spend some time in a Palazzio in Venice as the guest of the owner, facilitated by ar artist friend of the owner. It's amazing to see the old transparant mirrors, with the wire showing through, because the silver had thinned....but not bubbled nor peeled.
Your mirror is Chippendale in style but, because of the condition of the glass, I don't believe it is mid 18th century, more likely mid 19th century.
the wood looks like walnut rather than mahogany and the glass appears to be backed with mercury, hence the spottiness....or it could be a mercury/silver amalgam.
Yew is a very dense tight grained wood. I see nothing in that mirror that looks like yew.
My non-hands on guess....mid 19th century American....very lovely and in amazing condition.....but not English Chippendale. I don't believe there was ever gilding and I see no inlay in the wood.
Lovely mirror!!
Linda C

In person there is a very thin inlay of yellowish looking wood, it probably doesnt show well in the pictures. I only guessed yew because of a little table in my family that has a yew detail--on this mirror it could be anything because I don't know a whole lot about wood:) Actually, if you enlarge the top picture you can see the inlay toward the top. Could it be maple?

I see the yellow inlay now that you pointed it out...I thought it was a light reflection.
It could be maple, yew, but unless it is English likely not....could be apple... pear....or whatever else the maker had lying around.
Do you know anything of the provenance?
Linda C

I have some more information about it now . . .

Philadelphia, circa 1790s. Its not large: about 15" x 22".

One of the chicken's feet had broken off a long time ago.

How much do you think it will net at auction?

Ok just to be clear...this is from the Encyclopedia Britanica so we have our history straight:

The typical mirror is a sheet of glass that is coated on its back with aluminum or silver that produces images by reflection. The mirrors used in Greco-Roman antiquity and throughout the European Middle Ages were simply slightly convex disks of metal, either bronze, tin, or silver, that reflected light off their highly polished surfaces. A method of backing a plate of flat glass with a thin sheet of reflecting metal came into widespread production in Venice during the 16th century; an amalgam of tin and mercury was the metal used. The chemical process of coating a glass surface with metallic silver was discovered by Justus von Liebig in 1835, and this advance inaugurated the modern techniques of mirror making. Present-day mirrors are made by sputtering a thin layer of molten aluminum or silver onto the back of a plate of glass in a vacuum. In mirrors used in telescopes and other optical instruments, the aluminum is evaporated onto the front surface of the glass rather than on the back, in order to eliminate faint reflections from the glass itself.

So Palimp, if the mirror is dated right (and I'd say it's probably a fair guess but I'd want to know how they dated it because that is OFTEN a problem with antiques). I was thinking early 1800's but as I mentioned one way to get a better guess is to see the mirror itself in person. The reflective qualities do often lead you to the right answer.

Mercury mirrors can appear to "bubble" (much like the effect you see in becks picture). I don't see that so much in the picture you provided but if you've seen it you would definately know. The reason they "bubble" is that the finish can pull away a bit from the surface since the technique was not as good as the current mirror making processes, or the silvering process. It's a chemical issue that happens over time.

Knowing the wood used would help (but not be definative) in figuring out if it's English or American in origins. It's very likely Mahogany since that's what Chippendale style mirrors were made out of primarily, but occasionally walnut was used so you can't entirely rule that out. Chippendale himself rarely used anything but Mahogany for his primary woods, which is why you see so much of it in Chippendale style pieces. I keep trying to get a close enough view of the wood and can't guarantee I see one wood or another. The color looks walnutish but a mahogany mirror can also have that tone. The grain is very tight, but you can see that in both woods as well. I'd certainly want to know the wood though. Walnut would make it more likely to be American verses English for the period.

The yellow wood (lesser wood to the piece) would be most likely be beech which was a common secondary wood to chippendale pieces. It adapted itself well to small piece construction and keeps it's yellow tones over time where as some wood will darken. It was also readily available. Mirrors weren't cheap back then...I'm sure it was a well planned piece. The picture does clearly show the wood but without a close up of grain etc, it's difficult to know exactly what it is.

Either way, given it has it's original mirror and it hasn't been restored (don't touch the mirror if you buy it!) I'd guess it will sell somewhere in the neighborhood of $2,000 to $2,500 unless it can be attributed to a specific cabinet maker of the time, at which point the sky could be the limit.

Wow, I can't believe I guessed right, as far as it being Chippendale" Someday I will be an antique'er. Can you tell I have been retired for 2 years. Oh some joys that come to life in old age!

Yes beck you were dead on about the style.

If you had asked me ten years ago to guess, I probably would've said "tramp art imitating chippendale". :-) I didnt realize how "rough" some of the American stuff is.

lol palimp.... i just read what you typed....ummm philadelphia....ya um thats an amerivan city :oP Making it american heh heh

So are you going to buy the silly thing? It would be so cool in the right space.

The mirror sold for $250.

There were many federal mirrors, eglomise type, that sold low or not at all.

Oh my goodness what a steal! I need to move to wherever they have sales like that LOL