Below, the Tea Room, set with 18th century Sevres china, awaiting the afternoon gathering. The settee and chairs are part of a group by John Gordon of London, 1753, purchased by the 2nd Duke of Atholl for £35, 10 shillings.
This is a second attempt to portray the beauty and attractions of the ancient Blair Castle. Last week we looked at the ballroom, drawing room, and other gathering rooms. Below, a corner of the castle on the left and the bagpiper on the right (yes, a very accomplished lady). In the lower row, at right, the corridor to the shop and tea room, adorned with hunting trophies, and an aerial few from the website. The State Bed in the Tapestry Room with Spitalfields silk hangings and ostrich feather plumes was brought here for the First Duke of Atholl in 1704. The Mortlake Tapestries in the room once belonged to Charles I, later sold by Oliver Cromwell, and purchased by the First Duke in France. Below, furnishings of the Tapestry room. The Blue Bedroom was decorated by the 7th Duke of Atholl (1840-1917) and Louisa, his Duchess, pictured on the wall adjacent to the bed. Below, furnishings in the Blue Bedroom. A third chamber, strangely enough known as the Red Bedroom. The bed, chairs, and tea table are all in Chinese Chippendale style, by William Masters, c. 1750. Several rooms are devoted to the children of the family and their attendants. A child's sleigh, below left to right, a fine hobby horse, and doll furniture, show the clothing and toys of the generations who grew up at Blair Castle. At the base of the great staircase, a knight in full armor rides his steed into battle or a medieval festival of jousting. Throughout the more than thirty rooms open to the visitor, you will find dozens of portraits and evidence of the celebrated status of the Atholl family whose heritage includes elements of the Murray and Stewart families, among many other Scottish nobles. Below, right, John Murray, 1st First Duke of Atholl (1660-1724). Above, left, a 1902 portrait of Katharine Ramsay Stewart-Murray (1874-1960), wife of the 8th Duke of Atholl, who had an intriguing political career. After first opposing women's suffrage, she was elected the first Scottish woman member of the British Parliament in 1823 and served until 1938. I need to find her autobiography, Working Partnership, c. 1958. Below, the Tea Room, set with 18th century Sevres china, awaiting the afternoon gathering. The settee and chairs are part of a group by John Gordon of London, 1753, purchased by the 2nd Duke of Atholl for £35, 10 shillings. Next Week a Highland Safari...
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As befits its position at the edge of the Highlands, Blair Castle has a long and complicated history of conflict and changing family fortunes through seven centuries. To quote the castles's guidebook, "Over nineteen generations the Stewarts and Murrays of Atholl have been adventurers and politicians, Jacobites and Royalists, entrepreneurs and agriculturists, soldiers and scholars. They have made fortunate marriages and have almost all, in one way or another, made their mark on Blair Castle." In the Entrance Hall, there are sufficient weapons on hand to defend against an imminent attack, though the only belligerents we saw were tourists. ![]() Building at this site probably began well before the 13th Century when the Earl of Atholl participated in the the crusades. In his absence, a neighbor built a tower on his land. Though the neighbor was expelled upon the Earl's return, the old tower is still part of today's Castle. Built and re-built, it evolved eventually in the Victorian period into its present form, a version of the Scottish Baronial Style. The Drawing Room is magnificently rococo and contains paintings by Zoffany and Hoppner, furniture by Chippendale, and plaster ceilings by Thomas Clayton. The Dining Room exhibits a set of six paintings of the Atholl Estate commissioned by the 2nd Duke from the local artist Charles Steuart in the 1760s. The scenic canvases are set in a perfect decor of elaborate plaster surrounds by mid-18th century ScotsmanThomas Clayton, who is also responsible for the ceiling. Finally in Part One, we'll look at the ballroom, added by the 7th Duke in 1876, site of the Atholl Highlander's Ball and numerous wedding. Many more rooms to come next week...followed by a Highland Safari.
Gargunnock House was the wonderful home of Number One London's Scotland adventure in September 2019. We had some meals at home, expertly prepared by our colleagues, especially Cecily and Andrea. The rest of us helped out now and then...and gratefully consumed the delicacies. The view across the pasture toward the central Perthshire Mountains was breathtaking. The house evolved from an ancient Tower House known to be there in the 16th century. In the next centuries, wings were added and by the 1794, it took on its faintly Georgian appearance. Even this late in the season the gardens remained lovely. Love the colorful hydrangeas. Please click on the pictures for larger versions. The grounds and the path to the village also had interesting flora, but little fauna, merely the occasional presence of a few pheasants, none of which consented to posing. Gargunnock House is about 6 miles from Stirling and a 15-minute walk from the village of Gargunnock where we took great advantage of the local pub and village shop. Below, representing the fauna in the Hall! The rooms are large and light. Below, left, the library; right, the Hall; lower left, the kitchen; lower right, the dining room. The piano in the Drawing Room is a Broadwood made in London in 1794. and is said to have been played by Frederic Chopin about 1848. He was the teacher and friend of Jane Stirling, whose brother Charles Stirling, a Glasgow merchant, purchased the house in 1835. The house is now rented out for holiday guests. Gargunnock House was an ideal base for our further rambles into the Highlands, to Loch Lommond and to several imposing castles...stay tuned.
Above. the Unicorn in Captivity, a tapestry created for the Queen's Bed Chamber in Scotland's Stirling Palace, a stitch for stitch copy of its famous original created in the Low Countries/northern France around 1500 and now residing in the Cloisters Museum of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. I will tell you the story of how these tapestries were created, but first, WHY? The mythical unicorn is generally considered to be a symbol of purity, only tamed by a young virgin, and otherwise unconquerable. Since the 12th c., the unicorn has been associated with Scotland and used in coats of arms and on coins. Scotland and England were united in 1603 when James VI of Scotland became King James I of Great Britain. The official coat of arms, continuing to this day as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, includes a unicorn and a lion. I was most interested to see the Unicorn Tapestries at Stirling Castle because I had visited the "originals" at The Cloisters some time ago. They are in amazing condition with very bright colors--considering they are 500 years old. ![]() The Cloisters is located in New York City's Fort Tryon Park. a considerable distance from the Fifth Avenue flagship building of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but well worth the effort. It was built 1935-38 to house ancient and medieval art. The Unicorn in Captivity, from the website of the Met (image in the public domain). This probably is the most famous of the seven images in the set. Below, from the Met's images, top left, The Unicorn is Found; right, The Unicorn Defends Himself; lower left, the Unicorn Attacked; lower right, the Unicorn is Brought to the Castle The Unicorn Tapestries were owned by the La Rochefoucauld Family in France for several centuries. They were purchased in 1922 by John D. Rockefeller Jr. and donated to the Met in 1938. The Stirling Castle copies were carefully woven according to the original techniques and in the same materials based on high resolution digital photographs taken when the Cloisters' tapestries were cleaned and restored in 1998. Two teams of weavers worked on the weaving project, which took more than a decade to complete. Above and below the Stirling versions of "The Unicorn is Found." According to the website, 'The project was commissioned by Historic Scotland in 2001 as part of a wider effort to restore the king's palace to its 1540s style. A team of 18 weavers from across the globe came together to reinterpret and create the "Hunt of the Unicorn" tapestries.' It goes on, 'In the 1540s, the palace was home to James V's wife, Mary of Guise, and their young daughter, Mary Queen of Scots. It was known from royal inventories that when James V built the palace he owned more than 100 tapestries, but there is no record of what happened to them. The inventories, however, described a set of tapestries depicting "the historie of the unicorne"... Peter Buchanan, Historic Scotland's project manager who oversaw the process, said it had been a "privilege to watch" the weavers recreate the tapestries "in all their Renaissance glory"... He said: "Whilst we may never know what happened to the original tapestries, the fact that we now have these fantastic recreations, with the assistance of the Met in New York and through the generosity of our donors, will provide visitors to the castle now, and for generations to come, with a real insight into how the palace may have been at the time of James V.' Above, the Mystic Hunt for the Unicorn, a 'new' tapestry, recreated from fragments in the Cloisters. It is thought that the tapestries might have been trimmed to fit a particular room, amazing as that seems from our viewpoint. Below, part of the exhibit chronicling details of the creation of the Unicorn Tapestries. The myths and legends of the Unicorn's purity and the role of the innocent maiden in taming it has long been a favorite of artists, particularly those who designed tapestries. Another famous set of Unicorn tapestries resides in the Cluny Museum in Paris, below. Note that the backgrounds of both sets of tapestries show elaborate millefleur designs, beautiful flowers and small animals in intricate detail. We spent a half-day in the musee de Cluny in 2014 where we viewed 'The Lady and the Unicorn,' six tapestries woven around 1500 in the Low Countries or northern France. part of the Cluny's collection since 1882. The represent six senses. Above left, the Sense of Hearing; right, Sense of Sight. Like the The Hunt for the Unicorn, these tapestries represent, in the words of the Cluny curators, "a crossroads between two historical eras--that we nowadays call the Middle Ages and the Renaissance--in blurring the boundaries between the real and the imaginary ... and merging the secular and spiritual worlds." Below, left, Sense of Taste; right, Sense of Touch. The senses are allegorical observations on earthly pleasures and courtly culture. The Sixth Sense is portrayed by the lady returning her jewels to a casket. Scholars have long debated the sensory representation -- be it moral or emotional. Legends involving unicorns have flourished for many years...and I am tempted to add some of the images from contemporary cartoons and videos. But to place them alongside the brilliant images above almost seems blasphemous.
Long live the Scottish Unicorn! |
Victoria Hinshaw, Author
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