Arts & Crafts Glasgow School Inlaid Walnut Wardrobe Attributed to Wylie & Lochhead

A super Glasgow School inlaid walnut wardrobe attributed to Wylie & Lochhead of Glasgow. With both Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau influences it featured a canted D-shaped front, rich coloured well-figured solid walnut timbers and stylised flower and bud marquetry inlay. With a shallow moulded cornice above a single bevelled mirror door flanked by inlaid, box and ebony strung walnut panels on a base with two cupboards either side of a deep central drawer, the whole raised on turned legs and feet. With brass drop handles to the doors and brass bean shaped cut-out handles to the drawer, the interior fitted with hooks and a later hanging rail. Although the canted design and bean shaped brass backed cut-out handles can be found on furniture by George Walton, this piece was probably designed by George Logan or Ernest A Taylor for Wylie & Lochhead.

In good condition with some signs of age including some dark marks to the front side panels and marks to the drawer, a drying line to the base left side and some nibbles to the timber at the bottom edges of sides of the hanging section, the locks stamped ‘R C & S’ and with a working key.

The overall dimensions at the largest points are approximately

Width - 55 3/4in (141.5cm)

Depth - 20 1/2in (53cm)

Height - 77 3/4in (197.5cm)

Hanging space (internal size)

Width - 50in (127.5cm)

Depth - 17 3/4in (45cm) at centre, 14 1/8in (36cm) at side

Height - 54in (137cm)

For moving this item divides into three sections (cornice, middle cupboard section and base drawer section).

Wylie & Lochhead

The Scottish partnership of Wylie & Lochhead was established in 1829 as a firm of general upholsterers, furnishers and funeral undertakers at 164 Trongate in Glasgow. A good reputation and skill for introducing new styles of furnishings led to early success and the firm quickly became a household name with showrooms, factories and warehouses throughout Glasgow and branches later established in Manchester and London.

By the 1890s the firm was the largest cabinet-making business in Scotland and was pioneering the Scottish avant-garde through the Glasgow Style of designers such as Ernest Archibald Taylor, George Logan, John Ednie and Jessie King. A mahogany bookcase, with stained and leaded glass, mother of pearl, white metal mounts and leather inserts, which was designed in 1900 by Logan for the Rossetti library at the 1901 Exhibition, is now at the V&A Dundee.

The firm held Royal Warrants as cabinet makers and upholsterers to not only Queen Victoria, but also the Prince of Wales, King Edward VII, King George V and King George VI and it was Wylie & Lochhead who furnished the Royal Suites for the Glasgow Internation Exhibitions in 1888, 1901, 1911 and 1938.

Ref: 0688

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