This mirror frame was bought by the Museum in 1868 from Giovanni Franchi and Son of Clerkenwell, London. It is an electrotype copy of a silver version dating from around 1660 belonging to Knole House in Kent. It was bought with 23 items copied from the house that served as a design source for students in the government schools of design under the aegis of the Department of Science and Art.

The Museum bought electrotypes as part of its growing collection of reproductions. This collection enabled students to look closely at both modern and historic objects that were otherwise inaccessible. Multiple copies of objects allowed many schools to study them at once. Electrotypes provided the same function as the Museum’s collection of plaster casts. the 19th century art critic, Charles Eastlake, felt electrotypes were more instructive than contemporary silver productions: '... so far as the interests of art are concerned it is better to possess a copper-gilt flagon of a good design than a modern trophy cup of twice its weight in gold.'