The looking glass in disgrace [graphic]

"An elderly, sharp-featured virago, with skinny neck and muscular arms, sits directed to the right, furiously kicking and shaking her left fist at the old-fashioned looking-glass which stands on a muslin-covered dressing-table. The glass has been shattered by the curling-tongs which she holds in her right hand, and a broken hand-mirror lies on the floor. She wears old-fashioned stays laced over a petticoat, but her head-dress is complete; two tall feathers, with flowers and striped ribbon drapery, poised on unconvincing curls. On the dressing-table are fragments of mirror, large comb, tiny hair-brush, &c., bottles labelled 'Milk of Roses' and 'Olimpian Dew'. A bottle of 'Circassian Bloom' lies on the floor. The tall window is partly covered by a curtain hanging in festoons from above. Behind the chair is a shallow wooden tub."--British Museum online catalogue