Lot Essay
This circular table is a version of one of Lorimer's earliest designs and is related closely to a table designed for 54 Melville Street (the Edinburgh house he acquired in 1902) and now in the collection of the National Trust for Scotland at Kellie. The table is Gothic in inspiration and Lorimer's sketchbooks, loaned to the RIAS, contain similar German 15/16th Century tables that he sketched whilst on the Continent. In the summer of 1900 he had visited Munich, Rotherburg & Nuremberg with William Durrell and wrote to his great friend the Australian architect R.S.Dods: "I'm, if possible, more of a Gothic man after this trip than ever, for Gothic rooms and Gothic things have that look of the useful thing delighfully fashioned". The 'Lorimer-Gothic' turned leg is probably the most characteristic feature of early Lorimer furniture.