Compact Mirrors Personalised

A little history of the Compact Mirror

At some point during the day we all seem to find ourselves looking in the mirror checking that our appearance is acceptable and if any hairs are out of place. If you are like me I like to look in the mirror while I brush my teeth… I like to check that I’ve brushed all my teeth and not missed any! We take looking at our reflections for granted but have you ever wondered how mirrors become such a staple of our daily routine? Mirrors have a long and winding history, from natural mirrors to metals and finally to glass.

If you think back to a time when there was no lighting, electricity, burning fires or anything similar, the first mirrors that humans used were natural mirrors, such as water reflection. If you look in a pool of water when it’s pitch black you will quite easily see your reflection. This was the impetus for the creation of man-made mirrors.

The first man-made mirrors were made out of the volcanic rock; obsidian. Some of the oldest obsidian mirrors date to around 6,000 B.C.E. in the Neolithic Age using a dating method called obsidian hydration dating.

Various metals were used to make mirrors including brass, bronze and copper. They were shaped and buffed until they reached the apex of reflectivity. Biblical data corroborates this in Exodus 38:8, “He made the basin of bronze and its stand of bronze, from the mirrors of the ministering women who ministered in the entrance of the tent of meeting.”

Ibn Sahl was an Arab in the 10th century, whom scholars credit with creating the first parabolic mirrors. Spain and Italy were major producers of glass mirrors from the 10th century through the Renaissance.

In 1835, Justus von Liebig, a German chemistry professor, was the first to produce a glass mirror using a perfected silvering technique. Mirrors were silvered with tin, mercury or silver. Today, aluminum is the main metal used for mirror silvering.