Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 April 2011
We have studied the techniques of decoration of the backs of the British bronze mirrors according to the methods outlined by us in Lowery, Savage, Wilkins, 1971, 176 f., and the construction of the design on the newly discovered Holcombe mirror (Fox, 1973). Our intention is to examine the technical relationships between the mirror backs and to note some details of bronzesmiths' practice which they illustrate, and on which the Holcombe mirror sheds much light. Our conclusions are based mainly on examination of silicone rubber moulds which, with the co-operation of the museums concerned, have been made of all the decorated mirror backs now available. In default of a similar study of any extensive body of other material, no comparisons outside the mirror series are cited. We are not here concerned with mirrors whose backs are undecorated.