BAILLIE SCOTT, Mackay Hugh
(b. 1865, Ramsgate, d. 1945, Brighton)

Armchair

c. 1905
Solid blackened pear, moulded and carved, mother-of-pearl and ivory inlays, 188 x 66 x 62 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

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.




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