Medieval Style Enamel Mirror Case

Our antique hand mirror with exceptional enameled back and gilded designs in the medieval style includes a banner that reads "VT VIDI VT PERII" in Latin which translates to "As I Saw, I Perished", from Eclogue VIII by the Roman poet, Virgil (70 BC - 19 BC).

In creating a style of poetry known as Eclogues, also known as the Bucolics, Virgil based his work on the model of the idyllic poetry of Theocritus, offering a dramatic and mythic interpretation of revolutionary change at Rome in the turbulent period between roughly 44 and 38 BC. Virgil's book contains ten pieces, each called not an idyll but an eclogue ("draft" or "selection") populated by and large with herdsmen imagined conversing and performing amoebaean singing in largely rural settings, either suffering or embracing revolutionary change, and happy or unhappy love.  Widely performed on Roman stages with great success, the book made Virgil a celebrity in his lifetime and for centuries thereafter.

Eclogue VIII, from which the quote is taken, is known as Pharmaceutria, or "Sorceress".  The poet reports the contrasting songs of two shepherds whose music is as powerful as that of Orpheus.

For an item of almost identical enamel design and layout dating from circa 1600, see the locket in the Victoria and Albert Museum, ascension number M.543-1910.