Interior view of Newbattle Abbey house. Detail of carved festoon of black grouse, fruits and flowers attributed to Grinling Gibbons in the first floor dining room. Digital image of C 54125.

Description Interior view of Newbattle Abbey house. Detail of carved festoon of black grouse, fruits and flowers attributed to Grinling Gibbons in the first floor dining room. Digital image of C 54125.

Date 5/1995

Catalogue Number SC 772435

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of C 54125

Scope and Content Detail of woodcarving in the dining room, Newbattle Abbey House, Midlothian This shows part of a carved festoon of flowers, fruit and game in the dining room, attributed to the master woodcarver Grinling Gibbons (1648-1720). The bird depicted is a black grouse, identifiable by its divided tail. Carved and painted festoons of fruit, game and flowers were popular additions to the decorative schemes of dining rooms as they suggest plenty and abundance. The pea pods prominently placed in the lower part of this carving are said to be Grinling Gibbons' 'signature', but this suggestion cannot always be relied upon as the motif was later adopted by other sculptors. If open, they are said to mean the sculptor had been paid, if closed, that his patron had yet to settle his account. Newbattle Abbey was founded by Cistercian monks in 1140, and its church dedicated to St Mary in 1233-4. It became a private residence in 1587 when the last abbot, Mark Kerr, converted to Protestantism and was able to retain his lands. His son became Lord Newbattle in 1596. The remains of the abbey are built into the surviving house, which was modified and rebuilt by the architects John Mylne (1650), William Burn (1836) and David Bryce (1858). The house was gifted to the nation in 1937 to be used as a further education college. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/772435

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap