Ancient mirrors were metallic. The mirrors of the Egyptians were made of a mixed metal, chiefly copper, and were admirably polished. They were usually small, being in size and in general shape what would now be called hand-mirrors. They were wrought with great skill, and the handles, which were of wood, stone, or metal, were artistically shaped and highly ornamented. The Egyptian women were in the habit of carrying a mirror in one hand when they went to their temples to worship. It may be that the Hebrew women imitated this custom when they brought their mirrors to “the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.”
Dr. Shaw (Travels, p. 24) says that the Moorish women he saw made their mirrors a part of the ornaments of their costume, hanging them on the breast, and wearing them with their other ornaments even when engaged in severest drudgery.
Allusion is made to metallic mirrors in Job 37:1818Hast thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking glass? (Job 37:18); Isaiah 3:2323The glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails. (Isaiah 3:23); 2 Corinthians 3:1818But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:18); James 1:2323For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: (James 1:23).