Why Was A Mirror Once Exchanged For An Entire Wheat Farm?

Most bathrooms have a mirror on the wall, and the bigger the mirror, the greater importance is placed on the heavy fixings that keep it safely in place.

Given that nobody wants to chance the seven years of bad luck superstition dictates if a mirror is broken, most people try to keep theirs safe and securely affixed to the wall.

However, both are affordable enough for most people to have and most people to replace, which was far from always the case.

In fact, up until the 19th century, only the extraordinarily rich had access to the types of mirrors that are standard today, and there has been a long-standing legend that one mirror was even traded for a farm of wheat.

To explore why this is the case and why at the time it was considered a bargain, it is important to explore mirrors before the ability to mass produce them was available.

The Looking Glass Of Venice

The process of creating glass mirrors has existed for nearly 2000 years, using coatings of lead or gold leaf according to the writings of Pliny the Elder.

However, given that glass production itself was in its infancy, it was a very expensive process compared to the alternative of simply polishing a piece of reflective metal until it produced a shining reflection.

Neither were especially cheap options and that meant that for thousands of years, the mirror and choice of mirror was a reflection not only of the self but of wealth and class.

One of the biggest and most desired developments in both regards was the creation of Venetian mirrors in the 16th century.

By the 13th century, Venice had become the centre of glassmaking in Europe thanks to the exceptional clarity of cristallo soda glass available at the time.

This clarity was combined with a secretive technique that allowed the mirror to be coated with mercury amalgam that created a remarkable reflective surface, and the skill of Venetian glassmakers allowed for mirrors to be made that were up to 100 square centimetres.

Whilst full-length mirrors of this type are relatively common today, the techniques that made such large plates of glass possible were barely known outside of Murano and were one of the most desired and closely guarded trade secrets in glass history.

The rarity and beauty of these mirrors made them, at one point, more than twice as valuable as a painting by the Renaissance painter Raphael.

Did I Not Work Wonders?

The origins of this story, in the Memoirs of Louis de Rouvroy de Saint-Simon, concerns the Countess de Fiesque, Gilonne d’Harcourt (1619-1699).

Whilst there are various translations of the Memoirs, the Countess was known to be a somewhat fascinating character, described as witty and intriguing by some accounts and something of a spendthrift in others.

By far the most infamous of the many stories surrounding her was that she acquired a Venetian mirror as soon as they became available in France, and when asked by one of her friends as to how she got it, her response has since become infamous.

She claimed that she either had a farm or piece of land that was “miserable” and provided either "only" wheat or corn depending on the translation. She claimed to have since sold it for the mirror, rhetorically asking if she had not “worked wonders” in trading it.

She believed that losing the land was a bargain, and whilst she was almost certainly ripped off given the other accounts of her history, it also speaks of the value and esteem ornate mirrors were given in that time.

She was also arguably a victim of timing; whilst Venetian mirrors were astonishingly exclusive, they would not remain the case for too long.

Starting in the 1660s, several of Murano’s finest glassworkers were lured to France with the promise of extraordinary wealth in exchange for their trade secrets, although they were ultimately assassinated before they could share them.

This only served to delay the inevitable, as French glassmakers figured out a way to make large glass mirrors, ultimately culminating in the most famous and ornate part of the Palace of Versailles: the Hall of Mirrors.

By the 18th century, the Industrial Revolution had made it possible to mass-produce giant plates of glass, and this in combination with the development of the silvering method using wet deposits of silver nitrate led to the rapid wide availability of mirrors that most people could afford.

There is a chance that this story is an exaggerated fable similar to how Marie Antoinette did not say “let them eat cake” in response to hearing how people were starving around the time of the French Revolution.

However, it also illustrates just how quickly something so rare that trading an entire field for it is seen as a bargain can get cheaper and more widely available.