An ebonised and inlaid writing cabinet

DESIGNED BY MACKAY HUGH BAILLIE SCOTT, MADE AT THE DRESDENER WERKSTÄTTEN FÜR HANDWERKSKUNST, 1902/3

Details

An ebonised and inlaid writing cabinet
Designed by Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott, made at the Dresdener Werkstätten für Handwerkskunst, 1902/3
The upper compartment with fall-front inlaid with simple formalised motif in ivory, mother-of-pearl and pewter, opening to reveal leather inset writing surface, the back with small central cupboard inlaid with bowed mother-of-pearl triangles, the cabinet interior lacquered white, the doors painted on the interior with bold formalised foliate design in red and green on a white ground flanked by quartered shelves, the lower portion with two short and three long drawers, mounted with hand wrought wirework loop handles attached to pierced foliate back plates
28in. (71cm.) wide; 43¼in. (109.9cm.) high; 18 1/8in. (46cm.) deep

Provenance

Acquired (unidentified) by the present owner in Berlin approximately twenty years ago.

Literature

Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, Vol. 12, 1903, p. 236 et seq., (the commission illustrated in detail).
Dekorative Kunst, Vol. 12, 1904, p. 162, (reproduced above).
Heinrich Waentig, Wirtschaft und Kunst: Eine Untersuchung über Geschichte und Theorie der Modernen Kunstgewerbe Bewegung, Jena, 1909.
James D. Kornwolf, M.H. Baillie Scott and the Arts and Crafts Movement, John Hopkins Press, 1972, p. 326-331.

Exhibited

Heirat und Hausrat, Dresdener Werkstätten für Handwerkskunst, Dresden, 1903/4.

Lot Essay

M. H. Baillie Scott's most creative association with Germany was in producing designs for the Dresdener Werkstätten für Handwerkskunst in Dresden, run by Karl Schmidt, and for A. Wertheim in Berlin. Together they exhibited at least four interiors from 1903-1906, including the Ladies' Drawing Room from which the present cabinet originates.
The larger cabinet from this Drawing Room was sold in these rooms on 1 May 1997, Lot 263.

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