PROBABLY DESIGNED BY SIR ROBERT LORIMER, THE MANUFACTURE ATTRIBUTED TO NATHANIEL GRIEVES, CONTRACTORS AND ARCHITECTURAL WOODWORKERS, DALTRY, CIRCA 1926

細節

A QUARTER-SAWN POLLARD AND UNPOLISHED OAK BREAKFRONT BOOKCASE
PROBABLY DESIGNED BY SIR ROBERT LORIMER, THE MANUFACTURE ATTRIBUTED TO NATHANIEL GRIEVES, CONTRACTORS AND ARCHITECTURAL WOODWORKERS, DALTRY, CIRCA 1926
The moulded cornice carved with stylised leaves and berries, above a central bank of shelves accomodating a full calf-bound set of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, above an entrelac carved-vine frieze and a pair of fielded panel doors, flanked by open shelves and a pair of elongated cupboard compartments, on moulded plinth base, previously fitted into a recess and with probably original laminated backboards
72 in. (183 cm.) high; 112 in. (280 cm.) wide; 12½ in. (32 cm.) deep (35)

來源

Commissioned by William Laing, a Director of Nathaniel Grieves, for his house in Ravelston, Edinburgh.
Thence by descent to William and Margaret Laing, Ravelston, Edinburgh, sold Shapes, Edinburgh in 1994.

注意事項

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 This lot is subject to Collection and Storage charges

拍品專文

By family tradition, this bookcase was designed by the celebrated Scottish architect Sir Robert Lorimer (d.1928) for William Laing's new Library at Ravelstonand made by the Nathaniel Grieves workshop - of which Laing was Managing Director. It was designed for a recess to house the newly-acquired Encyclopaedia Britannica of 1926 - where it remained until removed for sale at Shapes. Although the execution of the design is undoubtedly treated differently to the documented Lorimer furniture executed by Messrs. Whyttock and Reid of Edinburgh, Lorimer's repeated collaboration with Nathaniel Grieves's firm for joinery is well documented, at Balmanno and elsewhere. There is therefore every reason to believe that family tradition is correct in assuming that it was to Lorimer and his own firm that Laing turned.

William Laing, born in 1907, was the last managing director of Nathaniel Grieves, Contractors and Architectural Woodworkers, of Washington Lane, Daltry. The firm ran an intricate and thorough system of apprenticeship for their craftsmen, and Lorimer sometimes used this firm to execute his designs - although to Lorimer's frustration they did not have specialist carvers on their payroll, preferring to outsource to specialists like the Clow twins.