Green and Giltwood Trumeau Mirror, 19th Century

• Provenance - A term used to describe the provable history of an antique or work of art, and thus an additional aid to verifying its authenticity. Provenance can have an inflating effect on the price of an item, particularly if the provenance relates to the early settlement of Australia, a famous person, or royalty. Less significant are previous sales of the item through an auction house or dealer.
• Trumeau - A trumeau mirror is usually rectangular in shape, with a decorative painted panel above the mirror. Most antique trumeau mirrors are highly ornate and often gilded.
  
  They were originally manufactured in France in the 18th century, but became popular agina in the Regency period and in the 1950's.
  
  Trumeau mirrors were originally intended to hang on a wall between windows, providing a decorative element and bringing more light to the room.
• Giltwood - Giltwood is used to describe a gold finish on furniture and other decorative wooden items, whereby a thin sheet of gold metal, called gold leaf, is applied to the surface for decorative purposes.
  
  Unlike gilding, where the gold leaf is applied over a coating of gesso, with giltwood the gold leaf is applied direct to the surface, or over a coat of linseed oil gold leaf adhesive.
  
  Most gold-finished mirrors will be gilded, whereas furniture with gold highlights will have the gold applied through the giltwood method.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• mirrors, wall, period, age or style - gilt 612
• trumeau (wall mirrors) 54