Detail of plaster foliage in the Tapestry Room. Digital image of ED 1940.

Description Detail of plaster foliage in the Tapestry Room. Digital image of ED 1940.

Date 29/7/1958

Collection Records of the Scottish National Buildings Record, Edinburgh, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 774449

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of ED 1940

Scope and Content Detail of Tapestry Room ceiling, Prestonfield House, No 71 Priestfield Road, Edinburgh This shows a corner of the 17th-century plaster ceiling in the Tapestry Room. A cartouche surrounded by scrolling foliage transforms into grotesque masks at the top and bottom, and frame a leafy branch entwined by serpents. This deeply and naïvely-modelled ceiling may have been the work of craftsmen previously employed at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, or their Scottish assistants. This was originally the drawing room, a public room which was richly decorated to reflect the status of the owners. Apart from the elaborate plaster ceiling, the room contains a series of 18th-century tapestries, family portraits and an ornate fireplace, all of which would be seen by visitors 'withdrawing' here after dinner. Prestonfield House was rebuilt for Sir James Dick in 1687 by the architect Sir William Bruce (c.1630-1710) after being burnt down during a student riot in 1681. A single-storeyed extension was added in c.1830, and in 1890 architects MacGibbon & Ross added a bathroom extension. Within the grounds is an unusual round stable block built in 1816 to designs by James Gillespie Graham (1777-1855). The house has been run as a hotel since 1959. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/774449

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap