Interior - view of Billiards Room

Description Interior - view of Billiards Room

Date c. 1888

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

Catalogue Number SC 736985

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of BL 9747

Scope and Content Billiards' Room, 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. This room was given particularly lavish treatment by Burnet. Built in the style of a Great Hall, it has an open Neo-Jacobean timber roof from which hang three highly elaborate Moroccan-style copper lights. The chimneybreast, richly carved and decorated with the gilded initials, 'JR', is curved back into the wall at the ends, and encloses an inglenook with 'swept-back' panelling and raised seating. The half-timbered gable wall has ornate plaster decoration between the beams, and the floor is covered with rich Turkey rugs. The billiards' room was part of the male domain of the Victorian country house, and was usually, as here, isolated from the main apartments as this was one of the few areas where gentlemen were allowed to smoke. Burnet reserved the major expenditure for this new extension to the house, and created an opulent and richly furnished room where Reid could entertain business colleagues, political and aristocratic friends, and relax outwith the company of ladies. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

External Reference Box 67

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/736985

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap