David Jones gave a Brown Bag Lunch presentation on Thursday April 7, 2016, from 12 to 1:30pm. His talk was entitled “Scotch Myths: The Furniture of Charles Rennie Mackintosh Re-appraised.”
In this talk, Jones explored some of the myths and interrelationships that surround Scotland’s two great early twentieth-century furniture designers, Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868–1928) and Robert Stodart Lorimer (1864–1929). Often regarded as opposing figures in the history of late Victorian and Edwardian furniture design, Jones presented new ways of interpreting their designs in the context of the various revivals that characterized the period.
David Jones is an author, historian, and Lecturer in Furniture History at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. He advises on several important collections of historic furniture in the United Kingdom, including Hopetoun House, Paxton House, and Dumfries House, where he is Honorary Keeper of Furniture. Dumfries House, now administered by a charitable trust, contains the largest group of documented furniture by Thomas Chippendale in existence. In 2000, Jones published The Edinburgh Cabinet and Chair Makers’ Books of Prices, 1805-1825 (Kirk Wynd Press), a fundamental source for the study of early nineteenth century furniture in Britain. David Jones is former editor of the journal Regional Furniture and he has published extensively on various aspects of vernacular and regional furniture, including “The Laburnum Tradition,” “Box Beds,” and furniture made from driftwood. He is a committee member of the Lorimer Society and a trustee of the recently-formed Willow Tea Rooms Trust in Glasgow, dedicated to the conservation of Mackintosh’s tea rooms.
