French Butterfly Mirror

With a vast inventory of beautiful furniture at 1stDibs, we’ve got just the French butterfly mirror you’re looking for. Each French butterfly mirror for sale was constructed with extraordinary care, often using metal, wood and bronze. There are 18 variations of the antique or vintage French butterfly mirror you’re looking for, while we also have 1 modern editions of this piece to choose from as well. There are many kinds of the French butterfly mirror you’re looking for, from those produced as long ago as the 18th Century to those made as recently as the 21st Century. When you’re browsing for the right French butterfly mirror, those designed in mid-century modern, Art Deco and Art Nouveau styles are of considerable interest. Many designers have produced at least one well-made French butterfly mirror over the years, but those crafted by Piero Fornasetti, Adrien de Melo and Luca Madrassi are often thought to be among the most beautiful.

The average selling price for a French butterfly mirror at 1stDibs is $7,833, while they’re typically $380 on the low end and $68,500 for the highest priced.

The road from early innovations in reflective glass to the alluring antique and vintage mirrors in trendy modern interiors has been a long one but we’re reminded of the journey everywhere we look.

In many respects, wall mirrors, floor mirrors and full-length mirrors are to interior design what jeans are to dressing. Exceedingly versatile. Universally flattering. Unobtrusively elegant. And while all mirrors are not created equal, even in their most elaborate incarnation, they're still the heavy lifters of interior design, visually enlarging and illuminating any space. 

We’ve come a great distance from the polished stone that served as mirrors in Central America thousands of years ago or the copper mirrors of Mesopotamia before that. Today’s coveted glass Venetian mirrors, which should be cleaned with a solution of white vinegar and water, were likely produced in Italy beginning in the 1500s, while antique mirrors originating during the 19th century can add the rustic farmhouse feel to your mudroom that you didn’t know you needed.

By the early 20th century, experiments with various alloys allowed for mirrors to be made inexpensively. The geometric shapes and beveled edges that characterize mirrors crafted in the Art Deco style of the 1920s can bring pizzazz to your entryway, while an ornate LaBarge mirror made in the Hollywood Regency style makes a statement in any bedroom. Friedman Brothers is a particularly popular manufacturer known for decorative round and rectangular framed mirrors designed in the Rococo, Louis XVI and other styles, including dramatic wall mirrors framed in gold faux bamboo that bear the hallmarks of Asian design. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, mid-century modernism continues to influence the design of contemporary mirrors. Today’s simple yet chic mantel mirror frames, for example, often neutral in color, owe to the understated mirror designs introduced in the postwar era.

Sculptor and furniture maker Paul Evans had been making collage-style cabinets since at least the late 1950s when he designed his Patchwork mirror — part of a series that yielded expressive works of combined brass, copper and pewter — for Directional Furniture during the mid-1960s. Several books celebrating Evans’s work were published beginning in the early 2000s, as his unconventional furniture has been enjoying a moment not unlike the resurgence that the Ultrafragola mirror is seeing. Designed by the Memphis Group’s Ettore Sottsass in 1970, the Ultrafragola mirror, in all its sensuous acrylic splendor, has become somewhat of a star thanks to much-lauded appearances in shelter magazines and on social media.

On 1stDibs, we have a broad selection of vintage and antique mirrors and tips on how to style your contemporary mirror too.