15 September 2022
Gilt Leather Rooms: Hospitalfield’s decoration in context
Arrive 6.30pm for a 7pm start.
This talk will explore one of the most significant surviving aspects of Hospitalfield’s interiors, the gilt leather panels which hang in the Dining Room, Picture Gallery and Ante-Room. Gilt leather has a long history in Scotland dating back to the 1600s, but it also enjoyed a revival in the nineteenth century when older hangings were re-hung while firms such as Scott Morton’s produced costly imitations, often designed to complement Gothic revival architecture. The talk will outline the history of this little-studied material, explaining their European origins, manufacture and hanging, drawing on related examples including from Glamis Castle, Culross Abbey, Crathes Castle and Callandar House as well as those at Hospitalfield and elsewhere in the UK.
Dr Clare Taylor is Senior Lecturer in Art History at the Open University and was previously a curator at Aberdeen Art Gallery. Her research focuses on the historic interior and its decoration and the relationship between consumers, designers, makers and objects. She is the recipient of a Fellowship from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art for her research project investigating Gilt Leather Rooms across the UK and Ireland. As well as studying archival and museum sources, including at the National Museums of Scotland, Clare is also surveying extant schemes in buildings including those at Hospitalfield House which allow fresh insights into the taste for gilt leather as part of the historical revivalism of the nineteenth century
This talk is exclusively for Friends of Hospitalfield as part of a dedicated programme of events. If you are a current member of the Friends of Hospitalfield and would like to join the group for the visit, please contact rsvp@hospitalfield.org.uk to reserve your place and communicate any mobility requirements. If you would like to join and you are yet to become a member, please click here to join or renew Friends of Hospitalfield