PROBABLY TOLEDO, LATE 19TH CENTURY

While the Zuloaga family were perhaps the best known craftsmen of damascene objects in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, several other workshops were active in the era including additional ateliers in Eibar and Toledo. Notably, the period saw the creation of decorative objects inspired by the elaborate architecture of the Alhambra Palace in Granada in which architectural elements were reproduced and reinterpreted in myriad objects. While the present mirror does not appear to be based after a specific architectural element, its elaborate inlay and multifaceted arch recall the thresholds of the Patio de Alberca and the Patio de los Leones, of the Alhambra palace. A comparable mirror from Eibar, dating to the early 20th century and of smaller proportions, is illustrated in J. Lavin, The Art and Tradition of the Zuloagas Spanish Damascene from the Khalili Collection, Oxford, 1997, p. 176, no. 73.