Furnishings of distinction
THE furniture collection at Blair Castle is remarkable for several reasons, not least the turbulent circumstances in which the ambitious mid-18th-century furnishing programme took place. A two-week siege by Jacobite forces had hardly come to an end in April 1746, when James, 2nd Duke of Atholl, resumed his orders for furniture from notable cabinetmakers. He was in the middle of planning new state rooms and had begun to buy furniture on a large scale in the early 1740s.
The resulting aesthetic transformation changed the castle from an antiquated fortalice into a modern and sophisticated Highland palace, involving major refitting of the interior and the employment of an impressive roll call of furniture makers, including Thomas Chippendale the Elder, George Cole (Fig 2), James Cullen, John Gordon, William Masters, John Schaw and George Sandeman. Most of their bills, dating from between 1746 and 1770, survive, which makes this period of improvement one of the best-documented schemes of patronage in 18th-century Britain.
The furniture of this and the later period of 1770–1820 is understandably eclectic, reflecting changes in fashion and the differing tastes of successive dukes. Overriding this variety, a unifying strand is apparent: the use of unusual and sometimes unique cabinet woods, mostly from resources available locally on the Atholl estates.
During the 1730s, the 2nd Duke had bought a small group of status items.), with crimson Spitalfields silk hangings and ostrich-plumed tester in the style of Daniel Marot, was brought to Blair from Holyroodhouse in 1707 after the Earl, despite having been made a Duke in 1703, had been stripped of his government post for opposing the terms for the Union of England and Scotland.
