Lot 562: JOHNSON, Thomas (1713-1778?). [ Designs for ceilings, chimney-pieces, slab, glass and picture frames, stands for china, &c.; clock and watch cases, girandoles, brackets, grates, lanthorns, &c.; ]. London, 1758.

JOHNSON, Thomas (1713-1778?). [Designs for ceilings, chimney-pieces, slab, glass and picture frames, stands for china, clock and watch cases, girandoles, brackets, grates, lanthorns, ]. London, 1758. Large 4o (357 x 266 mm). Elaborate engraved dedication leaf, second dedication leaf and 50 (of 53) engraved plates (bound out of order and lacking plates 42, 44, and 46; and 2 leaves of preface). (Some minor dust-soiling, a few light stains.) 19th-century half roan. Provenance: James H. Bartlett (gift inscription from J.A. dated 1893 on front flyleaf); Kenneth Clark (bookplate); acquired from Bernard Quaritch, 1988. FIRST EDITION of the finest and most elaborate English rococo pattern book of carvers' work, originally issued in parts between 1756 and 1758, and rarely found complete. No title-page was issued, but the splendid dedication leaf which gives Johnson's address was probably intended as a title. A second edition, with the title One Hundred and Fifty New Designs for ceilings was published in 1761, and is also very scarce. Ward-Jackson, English Furniture Designs, pp. 48-49; Rococo Art and Design in Hogarth's England (V & A Museum, 1984), p. 176. Sold as a collection of plates, not subject to return.

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