By Catherine David

A large papier-mâché mirror decorated with inlays and mirror marquetry, signed Catherine David. The frame combines the supple, mouldable material of papier-mâché with small fragments of mirror set in marquetry, which catch and return the light across the whole surface. French work, circa 1970.

An old technique of moulding paper and glue, papier-mâché allows free forms and reliefs that wood or metal permit less easily. Combined with mirror fragments, it produces an object at once decorative and luminous, in the spirit of the craft-based creations of the 1970s, attentive to material and to the hand. With its vertical format, this mirror can hang in an entrance hall, living room or bedroom, where it reads as a true wall piece.