Interior-general view of fountain in Conservatory

Description  Interior-general view of fountain in Conservatory

Date c. 1888

Collection Records of Bedford Lemere and Company, photographers, London, England

Catalogue Number BL 9750

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies PT 6494, SC 736979, B 64038

Scope and Content Winter Garden, Auchterarder House, Perth & Kinross (latterly Auchterarder House Hotel and presently a private house) Auchterarder House, a Neo-Jacobean mansion house designed in 1834 by William Burn for Captain James Hunter, was extended and lavishly refurbished in 1886-7 by the architect, Sir John James Burnet, for the railway locomotive magnate, James Reid. The architectural photographer, Harry Bedford Lemere, was commissioned to photograph the interior c.1888. The winter garden, with its banded tile work, marble pools and walls, and mosaic floor, has been described as a 'Roman spectacle'. The central ornamental feature is a wellhead with three lion's heads spouting water into a basin, and a circular pool with a central water jet. Behind is a three-bayed screen with columns with foliated capitals, and doors opening through to the billiards' room. Wooden planting troughs with exotic foliage line each side. The winter garden, a popular addition to the large Victorian country house, has been defined as a place 'to accommodate, for gardening effect rather than mere conservation, a collection of rare plants to be kept in condition during winter by artificial heat, interspersed with sculptures, rockwork, shellwork, and one or more fountains'. Designed as part of the ladies' domain of the house, it was a place for entertainment with birds in cages and seats for reading, lounging and taking light refreshment amongst the foliage. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Medium Glass

External Reference Box 67

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