Beaucaire mirror, Louis XV period circa 1770

Important glazing beads mirror called "Beaucaire" *, the uprights decorated with acanthus scrolls and garlands of flowers, the pediment decorated with a basket of fruit in a large shell on a background of ice.

Perfect state of conservation.

Original gilding, flooring and mercury glasses.

Provençal work from the Louis XV period around 1770.

Height: 180cm; width: 92cm

*Contrary to popular belief, the Beaucaire mirror was not made in this city, but in several different workshops, scattered in Provence. On the other hand, it was sold there during the annual fair. The Beaucaire fair was by far the most important commercial event in France and even in Europe with an estimated attendance of more than 120,000 people around 1780. You could find all the products of French industry. The mirror workshops that most often worked to order for the elite of the nobility and the clergy, however, produced a more common model in series with thinner glasses, a flatter decor, most often nailed to a pine floor. Of various sizes but always of substantially identical shapes, this production was intended to be sold at this fair. The earthenware workshops of Moustiers also functioned in the same way at the end of the 18th century, a production of very high quality on order and models made more quickly for the decor fair known as Beaucaire. However, we must not imagine that this production was intended for workers, the archives tell us that a small Beaucaire mirror cost nearly a year of pay for a soldier under the 1st Empire.
(Girault de Saint-Fargeau, industrial dictionary of France, 1847).