JOHNSON, THOMAS

This article appears in Volume V15, Page 472 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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JOHNSON, THOMAS , English 18th-century

wood

WOOD, ANTHONY A2 (1632-1695)
WOOD, JOHN GEORGE (1827—1889)
WOOD, MRS
HENRY
- HENRY
- HENRY (1129-1195)
- HENRY (c. 1108-1139)
- HENRY (c. 1174–1216)
- HENRY (Fr. Henri; Span. Enrique; Ger. Heinrich; Mid. H. Ger. Heinrich and Heimrich; O.H.G. Haimi- or Heimirih, i.e. " prince, or chief of the house," from O.H.G.
  heim
  - HEIM, ALBERT VON ST GALLEN (1849- )
  - HEIM, FRANCOIS JOSEPH (1787-1865)
  , the Eng.
  home
  - HOME
  - HOME, DANIEL DUNGLAS (1833-1886)
  - HOME, EARLS OF
  , and rih, Goth. reiks; compare Lat. rex " king "—" rich," therefore " mig
- HENRY, EDWARD LAMSON (1841– )
- HENRY, JAMES (1798-1876)
- HENRY, JOSEPH (1797-1878)
- HENRY, MATTHEW (1662-1714)
- HENRY, PATRICK (1736–1799)
- HENRY, PRINCE OF BATTENBERG (1858-1896)
- HENRY, ROBERT (1718-1790)
- HENRY, VICTOR (1850– )
- HENRY, WILLIAM (1795-1836)
[ELLEN] (1814—1887)
WOOD, SEARLES VALENTINE (1798—188o)

-carver and furniture designer. Of excellent repute as a craftsman and an artist in

wood

WOOD, ANTHONY A2 (1632-1695)
WOOD, JOHN GEORGE (1827—1889)
WOOD, MRS
HENRY
- HENRY
- HENRY (1129-1195)
- HENRY (c. 1108-1139)
- HENRY (c. 1174–1216)
- HENRY (Fr. Henri; Span. Enrique; Ger. Heinrich; Mid. H. Ger. Heinrich and Heimrich; O.H.G. Haimi- or Heimirih, i.e. " prince, or chief of the house," from O.H.G.
  heim
  - HEIM, ALBERT VON ST GALLEN (1849- )
  - HEIM, FRANCOIS JOSEPH (1787-1865)
  , the Eng.
  home
  - HOME
  - HOME, DANIEL DUNGLAS (1833-1886)
  - HOME, EARLS OF
  , and rih, Goth. reiks; compare Lat. rex " king "—" rich," therefore " mig
- HENRY, EDWARD LAMSON (1841– )
- HENRY, JAMES (1798-1876)
- HENRY, JOSEPH (1797-1878)
- HENRY, MATTHEW (1662-1714)
- HENRY, PATRICK (1736–1799)
- HENRY, PRINCE OF BATTENBERG (1858-1896)
- HENRY, ROBERT (1718-1790)
- HENRY, VICTOR (1850– )
- HENRY, WILLIAM (1795-1836)
[ELLEN] (1814—1887)
WOOD, SEARLES VALENTINE (1798—188o)

, his

original

ORIGINAL

conceptions and his adaptations of other men's ideas were remarkable for their extreme flamboyance, and for the merciless manner in which he overloaded them with thin and meretricious ornament. Perhaps his most inept

design

DESIGN (Fr. desiin, drawing; Lat. designare, to mark out)

is that for a table in which a duck or goose is displacing water that falls upon a mandarin, seated, with his head on one side, upon the rail below. No local school of Italian rococo ever produced more extravagant absurdities. His clocks bore scythes and hour-glasses and flashing sunbeams, together with whirls and convolutions and floriated adornments without end. On the other hand, he occasionally produced a mirror

frame

FRAME

or a mantelpiece which was simple and dignified. The art of artistic plagiarism has never been so well understood or so dexterously practised as by the 18th-century designers of English furniture, and Johnson appears to have so far exceeded his contemporaries that he must be called a barefaced thief. The three leading " motives " of the timeChinese,

Gothic

GOTHIC

and Louis Quatorzewere mixed up in his

work

WORK

in the most amazing manner; and he was exceedingly fond of introducing human figures, animals, birds and fishes in highly incongruous places. He appears to have defended his enormities on the ground that " all men vary in

opinion

OPINION (Lat. opinio, from opinari, to think)

, and a fault in the eye of one may be a beauty in that of another; 'tis a duty incumbent on an author to endeavour at pleasing every taste." Johnson, who was in business at the " Golden Boy " in Grafton Street, Westminster, published a folio volume of Designs for Picture Frames, Candelabra, Ceilings, &c. (1758); and One Hundred and Fifty New Designs (1761).

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