NEWPORT HOUSE October 20th & 21st 2026

84 IMPERFECTIONS NOT STATED Fonsie Mealy’s Est. 1934 590. An extremely fine Georgian period gilt rococo Mirror, exquisitely and elaborately carved after a design by Thomas Johnson. The varied mirror plates within elegant designs, C scrolls trailed foliage, surmounted by putti, animals (fox, wolf, deer heads) Ho Ho birds, urns central musical trophy and frosted decoration., approx. 209cms x 153cms (82” x 5’ wide). (1) Note: Thomas Johnson (1723-1799) was one of the most original craftsmen of his time. His designs differed from most of his contemporaries by breaking away from the standard repertoire of French Rococo and adopted as he put it “a new style never before thought on; the principle of it was a ruinated building, with cattle, in the Chinese, Gothic, and Rural taste.’ He delighted in Aesop’s Fables, as illustrated by Francis Barlow and published in 1687. Johnson visited Dublin twice, first in 1747 for about eight months, working for the carver John Houghton. On his second journey in 1753 he stayed two years, and was employed by William Partridge, a glass frame carver. The present beautifully carved mirror, which is a variation on Johnson’s original design, such as the putto placed at the top, instead of the figure of the Muse Erato playing her harp. Another putto appears lower down on the right clutching at a bark of a tree, whilst above him is a dog looking at his reflection in the mirror-derived from Aesop’s fable of the ‘Dog and Piece of Flesh’, or ‘The Dog and his Reflection’, taken from an illustration by Francis Barlow. The design by Thomas Johnson, first published in 1758 as plate seven in his collection of designs. (see image) Nowadays an animated version of the ‘Greedy Dog and piece of Meat’ is available on YouTube. Johnson’s mirrors always told stories to children in the 18th Century ! Dr. Joseph McDonnell €20,000 - €30,000