French Faux Bamboo Mirror

In the late 1800s half of France wanted bamboo in their rooms, swept up in a craze for Japan and everything Asian, and the makers who could not get the real cane simply turned it out of wood. This mirror is one of theirs, a frame of solid wood carved and ringed to look like bamboo, right down to the little crossed canes that stick out past each corner. The French had a name for the trick, bambou tourné, turned bamboo, and it let a room have the fashionable look without the fragile reality. Sylvie hangs it above a washstand, where its warm wood and crossed corners catch the eye as you pass.