In 1996, in an Antique Fair, I found a silver hand mirror and its matching silver brush.

Both pieces were decorated, on the back and on the handle, with embossed flowers and butterflies motifs. The set, made in England at the beginning of the 20th century, was a typical example of Art Nouveau taste.

The price requested by the dealer for both pieces was too expensive, so that I bought only the brush (the cheapest of the two items), renouncing to buy the mirror.
In the following years I continued to improve my collection, but the memory of "the mirror" and its renounce continued to be motif of great disappointment for me and my wife.

But, in 2006, in an antique market, we met "the mirror" lost ten years before.

It was offered for sale at a price that doubled that requested so long before (by a different dealer), but ten years of regrets was a too long time for a new renounce and " the mirror" was bought.

The maker of both pieces is W J Myatt & Co Ltd-Birmingham and both bear its "WJM & Co" into a shield mark.

The mirror has full hallmarks for Chester 1911 while the brush bears Birmingham 1908 hallmarks.

I don't believe that this is the 1996 mirror (the maker is the same, but dates and assay offices are different), but now our brush and its accompanying mirror stand together among our collection of silver toilet items