But I also discovered the next step up from hand mirrors for your dressing table: silver table mirrors that sit on their own as a picture frame would. Go to the site of one of Toronto's finest silver dealers, Louis Wine, at www.louiswine.com and you'll find some stunning examples. Just one is an 1880 large dressing table mirror made in Ireland with pseudo English hallmarks. The price? $2,904.21.
Don't be discouraged by these prices. It's quite possible to find bargains. Not long ago, a friend took her grandmother's sterling silver dresser set to a Toronto auction house to be identified and valued. Carefully, lovingly, she unwrapped the pieces of a deeply embossed, well-hallmarked set that included a hairbrush, comb, hand mirror, powder jar, scissors, shoehorn, buttonhook, and a couple of clothes brushes. Best of all was the original tray they sat in, that all too often is missing from these sets because they're so useful they tend to migrate to other parts of the house.
The appraiser told my friend that the set was late Victorian and was worth, at auction, about $80 to $100. If my friend's silver dresser set had been older and simpler it would have been worth a lot more. If it had been part of an old Louis Vuitton or Tiffany enamelled travelling set in its original leather case, again, it would have been even more valuable, perhaps worth as much as $20,000.
If you do have an old silver dresser set think twice before you put away everything but the hand mirror. It's possible to remove the brushes and combs from their backs and replace them with new ones that actually work. But it's expensive. Arnis Berg, a Toronto expert who has repaired many pieces of china, silver and glass for me over the years, tells me you'll have to be patient; he orders the brushes from New York and it can take six months to get them. But he can get them made in nylon or old-fashioned bristles; just be prepared to pay up to $350 each. Tortoiseshell combs are almost impossible to find, but Berg says the nylon replacements look almost identical to the originals. It just might be worth it.
WHERE TO FIND
Try Silver dealers, good antiques and jewellery shops for hand mirrors.
Louis Wine at 140 Yorkville Avenue, Toronto, ON M5R 1C2, phone (416) 929-9333. Its website is www.louiswine.com; e-mail is info@louiswine.com.
Cynthia Findlay Antiques at 276 King Street West, Toronto, ON M5V 1J2, phone (416) 260-9057 would be another good place to try. The website is www.cynthiafindlay.com; e-mail is call@cynthiafindlay.com.
Try the better auction houses in your city. They will have silver experts on staff who will be happy to provide advice.
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