JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post in the History of Holes series
While looking through D. Guilmard’s La Connaissance des Styles de l’Ornementation (published around 1860)–a work that is a sort of early clip-art assembly of aspects of bits and details of historical ornamentation from the Gothic to Louis XVI– I found several engravings of mirrors with some unusual detail. For some reason the Renaissance mirrors nearly all had a small white dot–a hole–in the center of their jet-black mirror surface. I imagine that this was a simple printing error, but I liked the idea of this spec of a mistake right in the middle of a dark field, in effect making a hole in the mirror, looking something like a light leak. It makes for an intriguing series of images.
Which is a detail (about 2×2 inches in life) from the full sheet, below
