This sideboard is the first documented piece of Scottish furniture executed to a Director pattern, described in the original paperwork as follows: ‘to making a mahogany side table for the dining room 6= foot long, 2 = ft. Broad; 38 5/8 in. High, cut with fretwork on the feet and rails including wood and bases for packing ye same £7’. Comparing the executed piece by Alexander Peter to the published engraving in the 1754 edition of the Director, it is immediately apparent where Peter departed from the original design in order to express his own style. Peter copied the Chinese fret work on the horizontal rail, and emulated the blind gothic fret along the legs, but he simplified the foliate corner brackets, and then departed from the original most strikingly by including carved saltires at the…

...the bottom of the table legs: lending the room another nationalistic element in keeping with the status and Scots pride of the owner of the House. In patronising Scottish wrights and cabinet makers, whose sentiments may well have echoed his own, the Early ensured that the many Scottish pieces made for Dumfries House are a celebration of the status of its owner in their origin, character and execution.

Servants were an absolute necessity in the Georgian and Regency periods because of the large amount of labour necessary to maintain even a modest establishment. Heating a house required carrying wood or coal to fireplaces in the rooms in use as well as the removal of ash. Laundry, beyond the hard toil of hand-wringing wet fabric, required large amounts of heated water which in turn required the carrying of more fuel for a fire, given that the hot water heater had not yet been invented! In some larger kitchens, however, there were cast iron ranges that had a hot water reservoir around the outside of the firebox maximising the heat from the cooking fire. Most houses at the time also had no running water above the basement kitchen level, so all water for bathing and cleaning purposes had to…

...o be drawn, heated and carried by servants. Furthermore, there were meals to be served, beds to be made, and candles and lamps to replaced or filled and lit, meaning that at certain times of the day, a veritable army of servants might be moving throughout the House!

The invention of a non-electrical internal bell system was advertised in London in 1744 as an innovation that would enhance the privacy of owners of staffed houses. With this bell system, servants could be called from the kitchen level and need not be as intrusive in the family area of the house. Before the invention of the bell system, servants were a ubiquitous presence within rooms or stationed in the hallway just outside the door so that they could be quickly summoned.

The plaques which describe the rooms the buzzers are connected to highlight the most important relationships in a structured household of the turn of the century. The direct line to the Housekeeper’s Room and Butler’s Pantry meant that Lord or Lady Bute were able to call for both the head of female staff and the head of male staff from the comfort of this room. The hot line also existed to the Secretary and work room to ensure that any aspects of life in the country house could be easily managed. Should you venture ‘below stairs’ you will find a central bell board located on the wall of the ground floor opposite the butler’s pantry, making sure that staff could be dispatched immediately in response to any signal from his Lordship or her Ladyship. 

Sold in 1759 as ‘two large girandoles richly carved and gilt in burnished gold a looking glass in each and two branches with brass leaf nozzles £24.00’, these two exceptional pieces are characteristic of the exuberance of English rococo design. In a room otherwise furnished with the solid and restrained pieces from Alexander Peter, the gilt wall furniture such as pier glasses, picture frame and these two sconces truly stand out whilst lending a lighter, more whimsical air to the room.

Whilst William Mathie’s frame around the Bassano painting and his elaborately carved pier glasses illustrate the Scotsman’s airy and naturalistic handling of the rococo repertoire, such as plant motifs, ho-ho birds and Chinoiserie, the two virtuoso pieces by Thomas Chippendale render a slightly different version of the style. Close inspection reveals a tighter handling of form which results in a more virile energy. Topped with a ho-ho bird, the Chinese equivalent to the mythical phoenix in Western culture, incorporating an gesticulating Chinaman, rockwork, c- and s-scrolls all bound together in an asymmetrical arrangement, these two wall sconces incorporate the contemporary ideal of natural beauty, that being a Nature that is shaped and organised.

The design of the girandoles was probably based on a earlier design published in the Director of 1754. With some alterations the Dumfries House version was subsequently published in the 1762 edition of the book. Like other pieces in the collection it therefore pays testimony to Chippendale’s use of his Dumfries House commission (his first major commission) to experiment with the new style.