BAILLIE SCOTT, Mackay Hugh

This ceremonial seat, as well as a second identical copy, was commissioned from the English architect Baillie Scott by Hans Bacmeister, then director at the Dresden Opera. The armchairs were intended for distinguished guests of the theatre.

From a stylistic point of view, the armchair is representative, on the one hand, of the orientations of certain currents of Art Nouveau and, on the other hand, of the exchanges which are established between the major centres of this movement. A major figure in the Arts and Crafts movement, Baillie Scott gives with this chair an illustration of the exchanges that were established between Great Britain and Germany at the turn of the century.

Regarding the mother-of-pearl rose to adorn the back of the backrest, it is a signature of Baillie Scott, who uses it in multiple variations on many of his models.

Among Baillie Scott’s best early country houses is Blackwell at Bowness, Westmorland (now Cumbria). All show his ability to design open plans with highly personalized interiors.

Blackwell was originally built as a rural holiday retreat for Manchester brewery owner Sir Edward Holt (1849-1928), his wife Elizabeth and their five children. The house later became a school, then an office space and is now an internationally significant Arts and Crafts house open to the public.

Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott had already made a name for himself when he completed his work on Blackwell, having published his sketches and ideas in The Studio, a magazine read by everyone interested in art, architecture and interior design. Blackwell offered him the opportunity to put his ideas on the use of space, light and texture into practice on a grand scale. He experimented in ways that might not have been possible had the property been intended as the client’s main home rather than a holiday home away from urban life.

Baillie Scott’s finest work was for costly country houses and individually designed and handcrafted interiors, but his sense of social justice, influenced by Morris, also made him a leading spokesman for higher quality housing for the working class. He produced ample and well-designed houses for moderate- and low-income groups, such as the houses at Meadway and Waterlow Court, both in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London.

The photo shows the white drawing room with a fireplace in Blackwell, now housing the Arts and Crafts Museum.

Due largely to his publication of illustrated articles in The Studio magazine from 1895 to 1920, Baillie Scott received numerous commissions by mail, not only from Britain but from abroad. Nearly all were for furniture, interior designs or country houses. In 1897-99, he designed novel and colourful interiors and furnishings for the Ducal Palace at Darmstadt and a summer house for Princess Marie at Sinaia, Romania.

The present music cabinet is after a design for the New Palace, Darmstadt.