claude glass...

Claude glass - small mirror, slightly convex, tinted, and carried like a pocketbook, named for Claude Lorrain, the 17th century landscape painter - when people looked at the reflection in the claude glass, they would see a world not unlike that in a painting.

So, rich people in the 18th and 19th centuries would go out into the country, in their posh carriage or what have you, and instead of looking out directly at the landscape, they would turn their back to it and look into the reflected image in their fancy Claude glass.

We groan about how people would rather sit inside and watch movies instead of going outside and enjoying the fresh air.  But is it really that much different from back then?

Thomas Gainsborough - Artist Using a Claude Glass, c. 1750