1 10 2 https://www.artisansinscotland.shca.ed.ac.uk/files/original/b29f1528c55ae2ae0e46a8ab140e483b.jpg e6730b7894cdda199020ab2fa1fc4537 Exhibition Item Category Buildings Image copyright Abbotsford Trust Item Location Abbotsford Description This carved pink sandstone fireplace was made by the Smiths of Darnick, a local building firm that was responsible for much of the work at Abbotsford, the house of Sir Walter Scott in Selkirkshire in the Scottish Borders. It is in a medieval ‘Gothic’ style, decorated with a variety of motifs including angels and thistles and the stone is from a nearby quarry. The inset tiles are seventeenth-century Dutch and the fire grate, acquired by Scott in ca.1823, is also thought to date from the seventeenth century. The fireplace is one of the first features that visitors to Abbotsford see as they come through the front door into the oak-panelled entrance hall, with its stained glass windows, ceiling painted with heraldic devices and displays of arms, armour and antiquities. The design for the fireplace is based on the so-called ‘Abbot’s Seat’ at nearby Melrose Abbey, which also features in an early Walter Scott poem, The Lay of the Last Minstrel. The sculptor was John Smith of the Darnick family, who also executed other decorative stone work at Abbotsford and carved a portrait statue of Scott’s favourite deerhound, Maida. His most famous work is the red sandstone statue of William Wallace at Dryburgh Abbey, undertaken for the Earl of Buchan. In addition to the Abbotsford building, the Smiths of Darnick were famous bridge designers and builders mostly on the River Tweed and its tributaries. They also constructed large numbers of country houses, parish churches and manses in the Scottish Borders, being active as a father and sons business for over fifty years from 1808 to 1861. Sir Walter Scott, Edinburgh-raised but who knew the Borders well from childhood, built his Selkirkshire house around an existing farmhouse, spending about £25,000 on the project (the equivalent of two million today) over about ten years from 1813. The house was a tourist attraction during his life time and he died there in 1832. It was a celebration of all things local from the materials used in the construction, to the use of local craftsmen for the stone and wood work and the design references to buildings and places in the Borders of Scotland. The name ‘Abbotsford’ was an invention, which evokes the idea of the nearby Melrose Abbey and also makes reference to the river Tweed, on whose banks the house is sited. Abbotsford, in the building itself, the architecture and design features and its historic collections, was a pivotal contribution to Scottish antiquarian material culture. It incorporated many pieces of antique stone and woodwork from Scotland’s iconic ancient ruins, including Melrose Abbey. The Abbey at Melrose was built as an outpost for the Cistercian-founded Rievaulx Abbey in North Yorkshire and is one of a series of great abbeys across southern Scotland in an area of rich farmland and sheep grazing either side of the Tweed. It was on the route of a pilgrim’s way, ending at Lindisfarne, falling into ruin after the reformation, though parts of the building were still used as the parish church in Walter Scott’s day. There are Roman settlement in the area, with artefacts from these sites also gathered by Scott for his museum at Abbotsford. To the east of Melrose, on the road to Dryburgh Abbey, where Scott is buried, is the promontory known as ‘Scott’s View’ from which a great panorama of the Borders landscape can be seen. Abbotsford and the Borders were important tourist destinations from the time of Walter Scott, with the nineteenth-century development of Melrose largely based on its summer visitors. Numerous craft producers evolved to supply the tourist demand for souvenirs, including the makers of wooden trinkets and small boxes, called ‘treen’, in relic wood, cut from trees that were grown on the Abbotsford estate and thus connected with the great man and the place. Similar wooded objects were made in Ayrshire from locally grown trees to commemorate connections with Robert Burns. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Carved sandstone fireplace at Abbotsford by the Smith Brothers of Darnick, ca. 1822 borders builders carvers design Selkirkshire stained glass stone Tweed wood https://www.artisansinscotland.shca.ed.ac.uk/files/original/4c71f0210b5d2f85d8277e68f7eb89c9.jpg c70229954c198cec4c9f4658006d9da1 Exhibition Item Category Wood Image copyright Newsquest (Herald and Times) Item Location The Herald Newspaper Archive Description This photograph of a perilously overloaded basket hawker’s cart, was taken in Argyll. The items displayed include wicker chairs for adults and children; baskets, brooms and laundry baskets; wicker tables, framed mirrors and umbrella stands; doormats and cane carpet beaters. Traveller communities in the Scottish borders and highlands were frequently associated with simple crafts such as horn spoon making or basket and brush making and mending. Cane and wickerwork furniture was particularly popular at the turn of the twentieth century. The source of these wares is unknown but may have included several institutions for the blind in Scotland that produced cane and basket work from the 1860s. There is a rich tradition of local basket making in Scotland, using the materials available naturally or through agriculture ranging from straw, grasses or willow. On Shetland, the ‘kishie’ is a basket used in general agricultural work, especially carrying peats and muck. The Orkney ‘cubbie’, which was a general purpose basket of various sizes, was made by the same craftsmen who made the backs for Orkney chairs, using a variety of materials including straw, heather or rope. They were sold by D. M. Kirkness of Kirkwall along with his high fashion Orkney chairs. On Skye a wickerwork basket or 'crealagh’ was made from woven willow and was used to carry wool. Fishing communities were particularly noted for their basket work, from creels for carrying to lobster pots for catching. In the late nineteenth century there were several attempts by local patrons or Home Industry Associations to generate commercial production of woven straw and wicker goods in the highland counties. Reliance on imported materials diminished competitiveness and impeded growth in this sector. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Basket Hawkers, Argyll, ca. 1900 baskets borders furniture Highlands Kirkness Kirkwall Orkney pottery Shetland Skye smiths straw