hand glass

plural hand glasses

1. A small glassyd frame for the protection of plants.

   s it grows naturally in woods and shady places, it will thrive best in a mixture of bog-earth and loam placed in a north border; if planted in the open border, it will require to be covered with a hand-glass during winter, and in the spring, when in bloom

   1787, William Curtis, editor, The Botanical Magazine, Volume 1, part 4

2. A small mirror with a handle.

   The mirror was in shadow. She rubbed her handglass briskly on her woollen vest against her full wagging bub. Peering into it. Lines in her eyes. It wouldn’t pan out somehow.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[4]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC

   2 more examples

   "Oh, thank you. I love to fix people's hair," exulted Pollyanna, carefully laying down the hand-glass and reaching for a comb. "I sha'n't do much to-day, of course—I'm in such a hurry for you to see how pretty you are; but some day I'm going to take it all down and have a perfectly lovely time with it," she cried, touching with soft fingers the waving hair above the sick woman's forehead.

   1913, Eleanor H. Porter, chapter 8, in Pollyanna, L.C. Page, →OCLC

   She laughed again, in a relieved way this time, as if her innocent vanity were appeased and reached for the silver handglass. "You've no idea," she remarked, confidentially, "what money will do for your appearance, when you're beginning to go off a little in looks.[…]"

   1918, Isabel Ostrander, The Island of Intrigue, Chapter 1