English Chinese Chippendale Style Giltwood Wall Mirror manner of Thomas Johnson

A very fine and impressive English Rococo 19th century Chinese Chippendale style figural gilt-wood carved over mantel or pier mirror in the manner of Thomas Johnson, after his collec...

An extraordinarily fine and large George II pier mirror in the manner of Thomas Johnson (1723-1778). The giltwood frame is finely carved, embracing the asymmetry of the Rococo style,...

A fine naturalistically carved oval mirror with bird, branch and stylized animal decoration in the manner of Thomas Johnson. An exceptionally fin...

Chinese Chippendale Style Giltwood Mirror. Mirror has a giltwood frame in the style of Chinese Chippendale-a fusion of English Rococo design with stylized East Asian motifs, populari...

With an elaborately caved gold leaf framed with free scrolling lappet branches in the rococo style, the base with inverted cabriole legs and a central shell and leaf cartouche, the p...

Well-carved giltwood wall mirror with a pagoda-form pediment above an open-work carved foliate frame.

This is a monumental set of Italian Chinese Chippendale style carved giltwood mirrors with Georgian styling. Each mirror has a facing Ho Ho bird and neo-classical arches and columns....

A Magnificent Pair of George II Style English Carved Giltwood ‘Rococo’ Wall Mirrors After A Design By Thomas Johnson. Of large proportions, each mirror having a cartouche-shaped plate within a profusely carved and pierced branch-entwined frame with stylised acanthus foliate rocaille and ‘C’-scroll decoration, architectural motifs and running dogs, surmounted by an asymmetrical pagoda form cresting with rockwork spires and a seated rustic couple holding a basket, flanked by confronted Ho-Ho birds, with a conforming asymmetrical apron of acanthus and waterwork icicles centred by a perching bird. This magnificent and ornate pair of English wall mirrors or ‘pier glasses’ are refined and reduced from a design by Thomas Johnson (1723–1799) first published in 1756 and included in his ‘Collections of Designs’ (1758), plate 4, and republished in his ‘One Hundred and Fifty New Designs" (1761) as plate 22. Pier Glasses were designed to be placed on the wall or 'pier' between windows; as well as forming part of a decorative scheme they provided an important functional use, creating a reversal of dynamic with the windows at night, reflecting and maximising the light given off by candles or oil lamps. Johnson’s asymmetrical design creates a sense of fluidity and lightness to the mirrors, employing ‘contraste’ in the placing or absence of elements, to create a stylised form, which through the dynamic tension of its constituent parts instils the mirrors with a sense of playfulness and vitality. In London throughout the 1740s and 1750s there developed a great enthusiasm for the whimsical Rococo style, and it rapidly became the height of fashion, popularised, and disseminated throughout the country and further afield by cabinetmakers’ 'Books of Prices', and 'Directories'. The second half of the 19th century saw a revival of the Rococo style in England and many designers and furniture makers turned once again to Chippendale’s ‘Director’ and designs by Matthias Lock and Thomas Johnson for inspiration, with fine examples based on modified designs or specific plates. Thomas Johnson’s designs, executed in a vigourous picturesque manner, are often inspired by the work of earlier French designers, transposing motifs taken from engraved ornament by Jean Bérain, Daniel Marot, William de la Cour, J. B. Toro and Francis Barlow...

Opulent 19th century English George III gilt wood carved mirror featuring a subtle Chinese Chippendale style top and finial. The square frame is decorated with rocaille C scrolls and...

20th Century Chinese Chippendale Style Oval Mirror. Mirror features an oval mirror plate framed by an intricately carved giltwood surround, and is crowned with a pagoda-style carved ...