News-Antique.com - Nov 30,-0001 - The Arts & Crafts Home is fortunate to be closely associated with the workshops of AD Restoration, a team of highly skilled and experienced antique furniture restorers, based in Brighton.
We are leading specialists in 19th and 20th Century furniture restoration and renovation, working with Arts & Crafts furniture, Gothic Revival and Aesthetic Movement designs.
We can offer FREE advice and FREE valuations for the repair, renovation and restoration of all your Arts & Crafts furniture.
We have recently been commissioned to repair and renovate a unique group of furniture, designed by Sir Robert Lorimer, and made by Whytock and Reid.
Sir Robert Lorimer and his Furniture
Sir Robert Stodart Lorimer (1864 - 1929) was a prolific Scottish architect noted for his restoration work on historic houses and castles, and for promotion of the Arts and Crafts style.
Lorimer was born in Edinburgh, the son of James Lorimer, who was Regius Professor of Public Law at Edinburgh University from 1862 to 1890. He was educated at Edinburgh Academy and later at Edinburgh University. He was part of a gifted family, being the younger brother of painter John Henry Lorimer, and father to the sculptor Hew Lorimer. In 1878 the Lorimer family acquired the lease of Kellie Castle in Fife and began its restoration for use as a holiday home.
Lorimer began his architectural career working for Sir Robert Rowand Anderson, and went on to form his own practice in 1893. He was influenced by Scottish domestic architecture of the 16th and 17th centuries and the Scots Baronial style of Kellie Castle where he had spent much time as a young man. Early in his career, Lorimer became influenced by the ideas of William Morris, and went on to become a committed exponent of the Arts and Crafts style of architecture. He assembled a collaboration of artists and craftsmen and, collectively, they exhibited furniture at Arts and Crafts exhibitions in London. In 1896 he was elected to the Art Workers Guild.
Lorimer designed a series of cottages in the Arts and Crafts style in the Colinton area of Edinburgh, the so-called "Colinton Cottages". Constructed using traditional methods and materials, each cottage included a garden layout and interior design, including furniture, in keeping with the Arts and Crafts concept. By 1900, eight cottages had been built and four others were under construction. The decline in popularity of the Arts and Crafts movement from 1900 saw the direction of Lorimer's work change, and he undertook several large scale country house commissions, mainly designed in the Scots Baronial style. Ardkinglas, 1906, on Loch Fyne is a particularly notable example of a Scots Baronial country house.
The outbreak of World War I restricted the demand for large new houses and his attention shifted to restoration projects. He already had a reputation as one of Scotland's leading restoration architects following the restoration of Earlshall in 1899 and Hill of Tarvit in 1905, both in Fife. He went on to carry out significant alteration and restoration works
