23 SOUTHERN HOME | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019
- Becauseof theirpopularityin thetwentiethcentury, sunburst
mirrors were produced in great quantities and in a range of styles
and materials, making these pieces affordable and easy to fi nd today.
David Duncan estimates that vintage models made of inexpensive
composition or resin can cost as little as $275. However, antique gilt
wood examples from the eighteenth century, especially those which
are exuberantly carved, can fall into the $7,000 to $8,000 price
range, depending on their size and condition. - Serious collectors of twentieth-century furniture tend to gravitate
to mirrors designed by Poillerat, Vautrin, and the Italian designer
Piero Fornasetti. According to Duncan, “Collectible examples by a
designer such as Vautrin could sell for as much as $75,000.” - Sunburst mirrors are not merely decorative but functional, too.
“Do remember it is a mirror, and mirrors are intended to refl ect
people,” says Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, designer and retailer
Elizabeth Stuart. “Keep the height to what would be appropriate to
do that; it doesn’t need to be perfect, just not 9 feet high or 3 feet
low. They look silly when placed in a nonfunctional way.” - Although any room can benefi t from a sunburst mirror, there are
two rooms in particular where Stuart fi nds them particularly pleasing.
“Sunburst mirrors are fabulous in powder rooms. They give style and
interest to small spaces,” enthuses the designer. Additionally, “They
work well in bedrooms like no other mirror can because of their style
and design.”
need to KNOW
mirror as their central feature, despite the fact that mirror was
still considered a luxury in the eighteenth century. According to
New York City-based antiques dealer David Duncan, “In Florence,
Italy, through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, antiquaires
repurposed carved elements such as sunburst and fitted them with
mirrors.” (Both the French Revolution and Napoleon’s invasion of
Italy led to many churches becoming dispossessed of their buildings
and decorations.) These ornate mirrors found favor throughout
Europe, both in Roman Catholic-majority countries, such as France,
and Protestant-leaning nations like England, where even the
straight-laced Victorians were captivated by their brilliance.
If the sunburst mirror had a renaissance, it was in the twentieth
century, when French designers notably made over the form and
updated the materials used to reflect their modern times. Gilbert
Poillerat, whose iron furniture was all the rage in mid-twentieth-century
France and remains so today, conceived his sunburst mirrors in gilt
iron, while Line Vautrin, the French metal artist and jeweler, created
sunburst mirrors throughout her illustrious career. Referring to her
mirrors as her “witches,” Vautrin experimented with resin accented
with mirrored fragments to adorn her stylized sunbursts.
As with most design trends, sunburst mirrors trickled down from
rarefied circles to the masses by the mid-to-late twentieth century,
and to meet the increased demand, manufacturers such as the
American company Syroco produced affordable versions made of
molded wood composite and plastic. But no matter how contemporary
looking sunburst mirrors became, they never deviated far from their
ancestors. As Duncan notes, “One constant is that almost without
exception, sunbursts had a gilt finish of some type.” In other words,
over time, the sunburst has never lost its luster.
ANTIQUES OBSESSION