Indian Mirror with Marquetry Mihrab or Prayer Arch

A scalloped arch, borrowed from the mosque wall, now framing the room instead.

This mirror with marquetry mihrab, or prayer arch, comes from Kolkata, India, and is contemporary, in camel bone on sheesham wood. A mihrab is the niche in a mosque wall that shows worshippers the direction of Mecca, and its arched outline has long carried into carpets, tiles and decorative work across the Islamic world. Here pale bone ovals and small rosettes pack the dark ground in tight rows around the mirror. A stepped band follows the scalloped opening. Forty-eight inches high and thirty-six wide.

The arch still draws the eye to its center.