Now what is a Girondelle? Simply it is a mirror with attached candle holders to help illuminate a room pre-light bulb era. So we are talking a 200 year old decorative object! History lesson time...
Oil lamps have been around for sometime, in one form or another. But the first version of what we know as a oil lamp was created in a Swiss lab around 1783. Everything from olive oil, beeswax, fish oil, whale oil, sesame oil and nut oil were used to provide fuel for lights.
This was a huge jump on previous designs being as the oil was enclosed in a metal or glass housing with a glass chimney to keep you from burning your house down every night when you went for your midnight snacks. The very next year coal gas was introduced as a lighting fuel. The next jump came in the 1850's with the discovery of kerosene, aka parrafin oil. Only 20 years later, Thomas and his crew invented the first electric incandescent lamp. So in short that is why most of us have never heard the term "Girondelle Mirror", except maybe for the people of Girondelle, France where the idea for the lit mirror came from.
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