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Baillie Scott, perhaps above all other British designers of the Arts and Crafts movement, was the artist whose work found the closest affinity and accord with the ideals of the Modern Movement in Germany. His commission to re-decorate the Dining Room and Drawing Room at the Palace of Darmstadt for Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse in 1896/7, marked the beginning of his association with the German Arts and Crafts movement which was to last at least another ten years. By the turn of the century Scott's work had been extensively illustrated and discussed in publications which were keenly read throughout Europe such as The Studio and Academy Architecture, and in consequence his work was brought to the attention of a broadly sympathetic audience. In 1902 his acceptance was assured when he was awarded the highest prize in the competition Haus eines Kunstfreundes, organised by the architect Herman Muthesius. Muthesius was Baillie Scott's most articulate and tireless advocate; writing in Das englische Haus, (1904/5), Muthesius describes Scott's work as breathing '..poetry and spiritual warmth..', where every room '..is an individual creation, with whole elements not present as a matter of chance, but rather (are) derived from the main concept.' This emphasis on the concept of the whole interior as an individual work of art was central to modern German architectural philosophy of the time, and was explored at length by Heinrich Waentig (op. cit.). Looking back in 1909 on the developments of the previous decade, he wrote: '..The movement (in Germany) achieved perhaps even greater perfection with M. H. Baillie Scott, who took as his concept of the house an internally and externally unified and interrelated organism, beyond the combination of good furnishings which had been been common up to then.'

AN OAK OCCASIONAL TABLE

DESIGNED BY MACKAY HUGH BAILLIE-SCOTT, CIRCA 1902

Details

AN OAK OCCASIONAL TABLE
Designed by Mackay Hugh Baillie-Scott, circa 1902
The circular top with inset ebony detail, on tapering octagonal uprights joined by shaped stretchers
27¼in. (69.2cm.) high; 21in. (53.2cm.) diameter

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

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