“What antiques restorer Maryalice Huggins knew when she stumbled across the mirror at a country auction in Rhode Island was this: She was besotted. Rococo and huge (more than eight feet tall), the mirror was one of the most unusual objects she had ever seen. Huggins had to have it.

The frame’s elaborate carvings were almost identical to a famous eighteenth-century design. Could this be eighteenth-century American? That would make it rare indeed. But in the rarefied world of American antiques, an object is not significant unless you can prove where it’s from. Huggins set out to trace the origins of her magnificent mirror.

Fueled with the delightfully obsessive spirit of Susan Orlean’s The Orchid Thief, Aesop’s Mirror follows Huggins on her quest as she goes up against the leading lights of the very male world of high-end antiques and dives into the historical archives. And oh, what she finds there! The mirror was likely passed down through generations of the illustrious Brown family of Providence, Rhode Island.” –From Amazon.com

Maryalice Huggins worked for Israel Sacks, Inc, as well as a few large auction houses, and was well-versed in the high-end world of antiques—that is, until her detective work takes her down hidden passages that lead to encounters with such luminaries as Leigh and Leslie Keno, who don’t come off too well, as well as various experts from Christies and Sothebys. Huggins has a frank and pragmatic approach to the often conflicting advice and information she is given by the so-called scholars and experts, and takes a keen-eyed “question everything” approach which results in several fresh nuggets of academic research.

The history of the American family that apparently owned the piece in the 19th century is a mesmerizing story in its own right, and readers who’ve researched the artists, sitters, and owners of their own antiques will identify with her journey into the past.