walnut · 1876 · the parlour
wide, low, set into the wall above the fireplace in the parlour. the frame is walnut, darkened over a century and a half by the same wood-smoke that left its faint amber haze on the glass itself. it has been moved exactly once, when the chimney was rebuilt in 1934, and was put back to the eighth of an inch by a workman with a tape and a soft pencil.
it does not reflect anyone standing in front of it, because nobody stands in front of it. it reflects, instead, the room as the fire arranges it — chairs in their evening orbits, the clock above the door, the soft ceiling gone gold. on winter nights a person reading by the hearth can watch the room go to sleep in the glass while it is still awake on the floor.
the last person to look into it each day is the one who damps the fire. they catch the room going dim before it does.
field-note an over-mantel mirror reflects a room, not a person. its function is to double the warmth.