IN THE MANNER OF JOHN AND FRANCIS BOOKER, LATE 19TH CENTURY

This mirror is clearly modelled on those made by the Booker family of Dublin. John Booker (d. 1749) is recorded as a 'glass grinder' at 6 Essex Bridge, Dublin in 1728 and his two sons, Francis and John (d. 1789) carried on the family business. Francis became Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1772 shortly before his death the same year. John continued with the firm and he is recorded in Peter Wilson's Dublin Directory until 1786 as a 'Looking glass seller, Essex Bridge'. An advertisement placed by him in The Hibernian Journal and Saunder's Newsletter and Daily Advertiser, 18-21 November 1774, describes him as a 'Looking glass seller' and 'Carver and Gilder' (The Knight of Glin, 'A Family of Looking-glass merchants', Country Life, January 28, 1971, pp. 195-199).
The Bookers are renowned for their architectural mirrors of Kentian style, with Corinthian columns and broken pediments, such as the one sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 27 June 1985, lot 130, which bore the trade label of Francis Booker. A pair from Charleville, Enniskerry was sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 22 March 1979, lot 16, and a further mirror was sold by Mr. and Mrs. E. A. McGuire, from Newtown Park House, Dublin, Christie's house sale, 20 September 1976, lot 53.
An almost identical mirror (but with a mirrored apron) and further related mirrors with scrolled pediments are illustrated in The Knight of Glin's article on the Booker family (ibid., figs. 4 and 5).