The Cutlers, Thomas Reads, Parliament Street Dublin – Miniature model by Tom Hudson
The genius of the visual literature of miniature. After years of vigilance regarding the protection and preservation of Thomas Reads, The Cutlers in Parliament Street, a building loved by Dubliners and the world over, of all the things to fall into my lap and hands, these photos of Tom Hudson’s miniature models of Thomas Reads in around the early 1970tys are certainly the most wondrous and precious.
Fantastic to have confirmed that actual models in these photos are still in existence in the hands of a collector (Charles Dudley) of Tom Hudson’s works.
Here is vanished history in great detail rendered back for today’s society. How important are these works is anyone’s guess. But the fact that they are here I’m sure is going to be to everybody’s delight. Take a closer look and enter the window of Thomas Reads for a true bit of window shopping into the past. Notice the matchbox and its size and then you get a sense of scale of the detail. James Joyce would be proud. As they say, you can rebuild Dublin from Ulysses but here is certainly one of its oldest shops, actualized in miniature in extraordinary detail. As alive now as ever it was.
Reads Right Hand Window in miniature
Doors of Thomas Reads, in miniature
Mannix Flynn 