Category: Features



Scottish Clockmaking: A Brief History

From the 15th century onwards public clocks had been erected in the squares and local spaces of larger towns around Scotland, from Peebles to Dundee. The mechanisms of these early clocks were produced overseas, and it wasn’t until the late 15th century to early 16th century that British clockmakers became competent in making and repairing …

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Wood and Metal

We have a large and interesting collection of mahogany and brass furniture in stock at the moment. This type of furniture possibly derived from cabinetmakers fitting out carriages, ships and trains in the last century. Wood and brass was used for various fittings, such as door handles, luggage racks, and coat stands. Some of this …

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Black Forest Carvings

Black Forest carvings usually depict forest animals, particularly bears, and also trees and foliage. A common misconception is that they originate from the Bavarian Black Forest of southwestern Germany, but it has in fact been established that they are the creation of Swiss carvers, originating in the town of Brienz. From humble beginnings of a …

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The Orkney Chair

The Orkney chair is probably one of the most iconic pieces of Scottish vernacular furniture. Now highly collectable (with examples at the Victoria & Albert Museum) Orkney chairs were originally made with a very practical design. The chair style that we know today was standardised in the mid-19th century by David Kirkness of Kirkwall. It …

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The Furniture of Sir Robert Lorimer

(Robert Lorimer at work in the office of Sir Robert Rowand Anderson. Painted by his elder brother John Henry Lorimer, 1886) Sir Robert Lorimer is to Edinburgh what Charles Rennie Mackintosh is to Glasgow. Lorimer’s impressively vast body of work covered the length and breadth of Great Britain, as well as venturing into Europe. Here …

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Charm and Character

The chest of the drawers is one of the most iconic pieces of Georgian furniture. It superseded the previous custom of storage in trunks, colloquially called ‘kists’ in Scotland. Most early Georgian chests were made of oak or oak veneered with native woods such as walnut, and rarely more exotic examples were veneered with laburnum.  …

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