Design for a Tablet for a Chimney-Piece with Two Swans in Combat, Enclosed within a Scrolling Cartouche with a Water-Spouting Dragon's Head

Design for a Tablet for a Chimney-Piece with Two Swans in Combat, Enclosed within a Scrolling Cartouche with a Water-Spouting Dragon's Head

Thomas Johnson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Thomas Johnson was an important master carver of Rococo ornament in London during the 1750s and 1760s. This design represents courting swans near crumbling masonry and is contained within a swooping frame adorned with leaves and a spouting dragon. It comes from a suite of six engraved designs for ornamental tablets intended to adorn the center of mantelpieces.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Design for a Tablet for a Chimney-Piece with Two Swans in Combat, Enclosed within a Scrolling Cartouche with a Water-Spouting Dragon's HeadDesign for a Tablet for a Chimney-Piece with Two Swans in Combat, Enclosed within a Scrolling Cartouche with a Water-Spouting Dragon's HeadDesign for a Tablet for a Chimney-Piece with Two Swans in Combat, Enclosed within a Scrolling Cartouche with a Water-Spouting Dragon's HeadDesign for a Tablet for a Chimney-Piece with Two Swans in Combat, Enclosed within a Scrolling Cartouche with a Water-Spouting Dragon's HeadDesign for a Tablet for a Chimney-Piece with Two Swans in Combat, Enclosed within a Scrolling Cartouche with a Water-Spouting Dragon's Head

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.