Lot 303
DOVECOT TAPESTRY STUDIO, CORSTORPHINE
SKEIN WINDER AND SPINNING WHEEL, EARLY 20TH CENTURY
Auction: 26 October 2016 at 12:00 BST
Description
wood and metal elements, winder 81cm wide, 55cm high, 37cm deep spinning wheel 108cm wide, 134cm high, 51cm deep (2)
Footnote
Provenance: Dovecot Tapestry Studio, Corstophine, Edinburgh
Note: Dovecot Studios was established by the 4th Marquess of Bute in 1912, and its founding weavers John Glassbrook and Gordon Berry came from William Morris’ Merton Abbey Workshops. The Marquess commissioned the studios to produce large tapestries for Mount Stuart, his home on the Isle of Bute. Dovecot Studios' first home was in Corstorphine, at that time a village on the west side of Edinburgh. It was originally housed in a purpose built studio next to a sixteenth-century dovecot, the only remaining part of the medieval Corstorphine Castle. After the Second World War, the studios became known as Edinburgh Tapestry Company and produced tapestries designed by renowned artists including Edward Bawden, Graham Sutherland, Sir Peter Blake and Eduardo Paolozzi. Faced with closure in 2000, Dovecot Tapestry Studio was re-established in the following year as 'Dovecot Studios', and is now established in the refurbished Infirmary Street Baths, Edinburgh where it continues to weave tapestries as well as provide a thriving venue for exhibitions.
This Skein Winder and Spinning wheel were used at the original studio in Corstorphine.