Mirror, mirror on the table, your scratches make your reflections a little unstable

October 12, 2011 7:09 PM

I have three antique bevelled mirrors (date stamped April 1915 on the back) that are part of a three-way mirror from a vanity table and that I would like resilvered. Does anyone know of a good place to have this done in Toronto?
posted by orange swan to Shopping (3 answers total)

Best answer: The antique dealer I used to work for used A. Berg Restorations for a variety of repairs. I'm not sure what they do any more personally, though, but there's a start. Gerrard Glass may also be able to either help or make a referral.
posted by peagood at 8:13 PM on October 12, 2011

You con do it yourself if you can pick up a few things from the store: List here but I would try it on a normal piece of glass first. Also depending on if there is oxidation infront of the silver on the mirror you might want to clean the silver off completely and then resilver.

I've done this using a bottle for chemistry demonstrations. It takes a while but it should work well. I would cover the back of the mirror in paint or something to protect the backside of the silver. The bottle I made is still nice and silvery after 14 years.
posted by koolkat at 1:34 AM on October 13, 2011

Response by poster: Well, I called around to the two places recommended as well as some others. A. Berg Restorations told me I could get plain, new mirrors without bevels for $100, or have the existing mirrors resilvered for $300. Gerrard Glass told me they'd sell me new, bevelled mirrors for $150 plus tax or resilver my old ones for $200+. I decided I'd opt for the new ones. I asked them if I could give them the old ones as I hated to think of them going in a landfill, and they told me sure, that they sometimes have need of antique mirrors, and that I could have a discount on the new ones in return.

So I traipsed down to Gerrard with the old mirrors wrapped carefully in a small wool blanket, ordered new mirrors for just under $150, and left the old ones there with them. I was served an espresso and told they couldn't have made the old ones look good even if I had been willing to pay for resilvering, as they were somewhat scratched. So that's a problem solved.

Thanks koolkat and peagood!
posted by orange swan at 10:14 AM on November 23, 2011