Short answers, pulled from the story.
Archaeologists uncovered polished obsidian mirrors at Çatalhöyük in Anatolia, dating to around 6000 BCE. These early artifacts represent the first manufactured reflective surfaces created by human hands.
Before glass existed, people relied on still pools of water or shiny stones to see their reflections. Polished copper mirrors appeared in Mesopotamia from 4000 BCE and in ancient Egypt from 3000 BCE. By the Bronze Age, most cultures used discs made of bronze, copper, silver, or other metals.
German chemist Justus von Liebig invented the silvered-glass mirror in 1835. His wet deposition process deposited metallic silver via chemical reduction of silver nitrate. This adaptation led to mass manufacturing and affordable availability.
Mirror images appear laterally inverted yet not vertically inverted because objects viewed in a plane mirror seem to exist behind the surface at equal distance. The image reverses front and back rather than swapping left and right directly.
Glass began appearing in mirrors during the 1st century CE with the development of soda-lime glass and glass blowing. No archaeological evidence exists for glass mirrors before the third century.