M H Baillie Scott. A pair of stained beech and inlaid armchairs

Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott (1865-1945). A pair of stained beech and inlaid armchairs, the tapered slab backs with foliate and ribbon-bordered roundels, flat curved arms, triform seats and square tapered front supports, 84cm high. The present design, with several variant inlaid motifs, was featured in both a Ladies Bedroom and a Ladies Sitting Room - two interiors presented by Baillie Scott at the Deutsche Werkstatten fur Handwerkunst Exhibition in Dresden, 1903. It was produced in natural oak for the Bedroom. And black stained for the Sitting Room. See 'Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration 1904', Vol 4, p. 234 et seq. The design of the chair can be dated to at least two years earlier than the Dresden Exhibition however, since it is featured in the 1901 catalogue of Baillie Scott's designs produced by J. P. White at the Pyghtle Works, Bedford. Catalogue No. 55 describes it as: 'Chair with inlaid decoration in relief. Price in oak: ú3. 15. 0. Price in mahogany: ú4. 0. 0. Prices of Cushions upon application'. It is probable that loose cushion covers, embroidered or printed to Baillie Scott's design would also have been available. Baillie Scott's scheme for the Lady's Sitting Room, with its subtle colouring used in conjunction with simple patterns and motifs derived from Nature, demonstrated all the qualities of unity and 'Innigkeit' (inner warmth) so much admired by his German peers. Heinrich Waentig was captivated by the displays at the Dresden exhibition and described the Sitting Room in glowing terms - 'Baillie Scott's grey boudoir with its black furniture in alder and pearwood in which the mother-of-pearl and ivory intarsia gleam like jewels, while the quivering glow of the fireplace, fighting with the winter sunshine which is muted by bright blue curtains, plays upon the lilac-velvet cushions' .