Artisans and Craft Production in Nineteenth-Century Scotland

A University of Edinburgh online exhibition about Scottish artisans, their work and working lives between 1780 and 1914.

Wood

Fern Ware Box, Mauchline, ca. 1900

© East Ayrshire Council - by permission of East Ayrshire Leisure

Fern Ware Box, Mauchline, ca. 1900

This sycamore wood box is decorated with a pattern of ferns and other leaf shapes in green and red on a brown ground. It has been customised with the initials ‘E.L’, and it was probably made by the firm of W. & A. Smith in Mauchline, a small town in East Ayrshire that became a centre of wooden souvenir manufacture in the early nineteenth century.  Fern patterns were a popular finish for small items of wood ware (collectively known as treen) from the 1870s, though similar wooden items were decorated in a range of styles and finishes, including tartan and scenic views of Scottish landmarks.

Decorated wooden boxes were associated with a number of Scottish manufacturers but particularly with W.& A. Smith, which operated from 1810 to 1939. Desire for souvenirs decorated with fern motifs grew from a trend in botanical exploration that became widespread from the 1840s and reached fever pitch by the 1850s. Fern ware was the fifth most common finish for Scottish box ware in a range that included seaweed ware, tartan ware, transfer ware (mostly landscape scenes) and other motifs designed to appeal to Scotland’s tourist trade. In 1850 Smith’s published Authenticated Tartans of the Clans and Families of Scotland, in which ‘ the garb of the Highland Clans was given in all its brilliance and vibrancy’ and which showcased a technological development pioneered by W. & A. Smith.  The firm mechanically reproduced intricate tartan designs on paper that could be skilfully glued to small items of wood ware, their seams concealed with black and gold paint. Smith’s was awarded a gold medal at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851 in recognition of the ingenuity of their invention. 

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Hall Chair, William Trotter, 1816

© Crown Copyright reproduced courtesy of Historic Scotland

Hall Chair, William Trotter, 1816

This carved mahogany hall chair with intricate rope and anchor design, was made by William Trotter for Trinity House, Edinburgh in 1816.  It is one of a set of six, and is in a typical ‘hall chair’ design, with an elaborate armorial back and solid seat suitable for an entrance hall where users were likely to be seated for a short time and wearing wet outer garments.  The chairs feature the Trinity House emblem, ‘PERVIA VIRTUTI SYDERA TERRA MARE’ (‘The earth, the sea and the stars are conquerable by men of courage.’)

William Trotter (1772-1833) was Scotland’s most celebrated early nineteenth century cabinetmaker.  His family were long established in trade in Edinburgh and he was a significant figure in the Merchant Company, where he was Master in 1819.  He operated through various partnerships before setting up a business in own right in 1805, with extensive showrooms at the east end of Princes Street.  The Trinity House hall chair was made at the height of his success, when he was known for restrained neoclassical design.  His commissions included other Edinburgh institutions, such as the Signet Library ca.1822 and domestic customers, such as local M.P. John Home Robertson for Paxton House, a country mansion in Berwickshire, as well as the numerous residents of Edinburgh’s quickly expanding New Town.  Trotter’s vast output was elegant in design and used the best quality woods.

Trinity House is the home of the trade regulation body known as the Incorporation of Ship Owners and Shipmasters. The building, in Leith, built in 1816 to designs by Thomas Brown, is on the site of the former Trinity House, which dates back to the sixteenth century.  The chairs were designed for the new building and Trotter was paid £15 15s in 1817 for the commission.

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Wood