Country House Collections At Slane Castle 13th October 2015 : You can Download a PDF Version from the Bottom Menu Down Arrow Icon

mid 18th century, by John and Francis Booker, circa 1750 the architectural pediment centred with a classical urn above the

large rectangular plate, and narrow border plates overlaid with acanthus and bellflower ornament and flanked by corinthian

columns, pilasters and fish scale corbels.

181cm high x 113cm wide

€ 40,000 - 60,000

This important Palladian pier glass was made by the celebrated Dublin

‘Looking Glass Merchants’, ‘glass-grinders’ and ‘glass

sellers’,

Francis and John Booker. There is a shadow of the brother’s trade label on the reverse. As the frame’s design shows no

hint of the rococo flourishes that adorn their later work it is thought that it dates from soon after their father’s death in 1750.

The Bookers, father and sons, are recorded in premises in Essex Bridge, Dublin from 1715. Francis Booker became Lord Mayor

of Dublin in 1772 and died later that year, leaving his brother John to continue with the business in their shop in Essex Bridge

until 1786 when he moved to Jervis Street. He died three years later in 1789 and the experience and craftsmanship of two

generations of Irish looking-glass sellers died with him.

This mirror is very close in form to designs by William Jones in his

The Gentleman’s or Builders Companion

containing a variety of

useful designs for doors, gateways, peers, pavilions, temples, chimney-pieces, slab tables, pier glasses, or tabernacle frames,

ceiling pieces, etc., 1739 (see Glin and Peill, Irish Furniture, fig. 193). It also belongs to a documented group of similar mirrors

by the Booker brothers, formerly at Charleville, Enniskerry, and in the collection of the Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, amongst

others. (See Glin and Peill, Irish Furniture, fig. 194, cat. nos. 224-226.)

Related mirrors include one from the ‘Collection of The Knight of Glin, Glin Castle’, sold Christie’s, London, 7 May 2009, lot 51

(£61,650 including premium), another,Christie’s, London, 9 June 2011, lot 281 (£49,250 including premium), another, Christie’s,

London, 14 November 2013, lot 5 (£68,500 including premium) and another Christies, London 13 November 2014, lot 60

(£80,500 including premium).