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1807-1809
GUSN-24812
Nearly complete printed label glued on back with inked initials "J.K." in upper left corner. "BARNARD CERMENATI...NO. 10 STATE-STREET, NEWBURYPORT". Rectangular, molded gilt and gesso frame culminating in molded cornice with pendant ball border. Top portion contains eglomise panel of rampant eagle bearing fasces, olive branch, ribbon and shield surrounded by foliate border. Lower portion contains glass.
wall mirrors
gesso
gilding
glass (material)
pine (wood)
Mirror
Mirror, Wall
Mirror, Wall
In 1807 Bernard Cermenati opened a looking glass store at 10 State Street in Newburyport, Massachusetts where he remained only two years before removing to Salem at the end of 1809. This labeled looking glass was purchased to embellish the low-ceilinged parlor of the seventeenth-century Coffin house on High Road in Newbury. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Coffin House in Newbury, Massachusetts had been legally divided and was inhabited by two families, cousins who were the fifth and sixth generations of Coffins to live in the house. Edmund Coffin (1764-1825) married his second wife in 1809. The wedding perhaps provided the occasion for the purchase of this looking glass, a fashionable and expensive addition to the family's most public room.
Cermenati, Bernard (Maker)
Newburyport, MA, USA
37 1/8 x 17 1/8 (HxW) (inches)
Gift of Mrs. Arthur M. Merriam
1963.101
Massachusetts (United States)
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