The earliest were hand mirrors," says Bridget de Breanski, of the French Mirror Company in Henley. "Full length mirrors did not appear until the first century.

"Between 1500 and 1700 Murano glassmakers in Venice took the manufacture of mirrors to a new refinement by coating flat glass with a layer of tin foil and mercury. Their mirrors were exported all over the world, transported in beds of straw and seaweed.

"Large scale production began in England at Ravenshead in 1776. All the men working in glass and mirror factories were highly-valued skilled workers - but many suffered from mercury poisoning.

"In 1835, a German chemist, Prof von Liebig, discovered glass could be coated with a much safer solution of silver salts. The method of manufacture changed again in the 1920s, when aluminium became the backing of choice, a technique that has continued until the present day."

Why did Bridget decide to specialise in French mirrors?

"The tall, elegant and sometimes quite frivolous style of French mirrors seems to fit easily into the homes we are living in today, particularly with our passion for all things French in both the home and the garden.

"We also found that 19th-century English mirrors were uninspiring; almost without exception they are a landscape shape with minimal decoration which seemed to have been endlessly 'plonked' on mantle shelves with little imagination," Bridget said.

"This is certainly true of gilt mirrors under £2,000 - whereas the French put their gorgeous decorative mirrors everywhere. The aim was to gather all the light possible from small windows when the shutters were open and take it upwards to use all that wonderful space of the high ceilings in 18th or 19th century houses. They also used mirrors as pieces of 'art' to look at and to bring elegance to their homes.

"Wood was used to make the basic structure of all mirror frames and pre-19th century," Bridget said. "All the decoration to the front of these frames was carved.

"Gilt wood is carved wood coated in gesso and gilded. This was a costly and time-consuming process. By 1810, mirrors became more affordable after a mixture known as composition was developed. This was pressed into moulds while still warm and the frame would then be decorated in the same manner as gilt wood.

"The variety in antique mirrors comes with the symbols and emblems used as decoration.

"Garlands of flowers, shells, grapevines, acanthus leaves and flowers, birds, torch and quiver, ribbons, bows, musical instruments, cherubs, heads of wheat, griffins are only some of the many embellishments. They were often symbolic.

"Cooing doves were wedding symbols while acanthus leaves denoted strength."

The Old French Mirror Company, call 01189 482444