C O N T E X T 1 3 4 : M A Y 2 0 1 4 59 eastern views of cultural landscape are a continuous theme. Although there are no UK examples, the chapter on the withdrawal of world heritage status from the Dresden Elbe Valley due to the construction of a bridge destroying ‘irreversibly the integrity and the universal value of the site’ has lessons for us all on governance and stakeholder involvement. There is significant emphasis on the ‘emergent concept of historic urban landscapes’ and how these can be managed to retain their authenticity and integrity, particularly in the face of global tourism and gentrification. Despite the obvious uphill battles in winning political hearts and minds, the book ends on a positive note, identifying key issues. It puts forward strategies and guidelines, including sustainable traditional land uses that benefit biodiversity and local communities; respect for traditional knowledge systems, the human rights and cultural values of indigenous people; and the economy and governance of heritage tourism. This is rewarding and valuable book with considerable depth. Other titles in the series include Heritage and Globalisation, Intangible Heritage and Places of Pain and Shame. If they are half as good a read as Managing Cultural Landscapes, they will be worthy of further investigation. Liz Lake, the principal of Liz Lake Associates, chartered landscape architects Trust and collaboration The Arts and Crafts Movement in Scotland: a history Annette Carruthers,Yale University Press, 2013, 404pp, 100 colour images, 250 blackand-white, ISBN 978 0 300195 76 7, £60 As the second major monograph on the arts-and-crafts movement in Scotland in less than a decade, much may be expected of this new tome. Elizabeth Cumming’s excellent precursor, Hand, Heart and Soul: the arts and crafts movement in Scotland, beautifully produced by Birlinn, was published in 2006. This successor is generously illustrated, lavishly produced and nearly twice the length of its eponymous predecessor, if lacking the finesse of the Birlinn design. Its author, Annette Carruthers, is a senior lecturer at St Andrews, teaching the museums and galleries course, with her research interest focusing particularly on furniture and interiors. The new volume seeks to explore the development of the English arts-and-crafts movement in Scotland in the years from 1860-1930. It presumes some understanding of the movement, its definition of arts and crafts being side-tracked in explaining the exclusion of what and who are not eligible on purist grounds. Carruthers’ intention is to highlight only those who she believes displayed trust and collaboration with the craftsmen. Consequently, if you are looking for an overview of how the elements of this movement moved north in their hardline form, Carruthers will provide. Whole chapters are devoted to Phoebe Traquair, Robert Lorimer and Melsetter, well-known cornerstones of the movement (already themselves the subject of several monographs). The geographical context of the uptake of English arts and crafts is outlined and given an underlying chronology. Carruthers identifies provincial endeavours across Scotland, for example, in Ayr, Elgin, Huntly, Fortingall and Rosneath, and seeks to illustrate the spread of the English philosophy to these areas, singling out circles such as that of William Kelly in Aberdeen. Within the urban context, new detail adds depth to existing knowledge, for example in helping to distil the significance of Edinburgh’s Dean Studios as a unique hub: however, as the studios’ building has gone, the relevance to the conservation professional is limited. Beware, too: the account perpetuates misrepresentations. Kinross was never a pupil of Rowand Anderson. While the understanding that the book brings is strictly focused within its bounds, the conservation officer must take it in these terms. The volume does not consider the development of the Scottish arts-and-crafts movement, expressly omitting John Burnet and William Leiper, sharing a sympathy with Roderick Gradidge’s view of the movement as ‘English (not Scottish)’. It accordingly ignores the drive of the Scottish architects, their Architectural Associations and the National Art Survey, to find a new traditional style for the nation, an artisan classical language for the modern designer (appreciating the need for handcraft and skills in this), and does not address how it was realised architecturally. The carved embellishments by Lorimer owe to this same study and endeavour, but the import and breadth of the initiative and its impact are not part of the volume. Accordingly, Carruthers leaves the way for a book on the Scottish movement in Scotland. A book considering the achievements of the Scots’ interpretation of the movement’s broad philosophy in their similar search for a modern vernacular would help conservationists: one with less of the fanatical hair vest, and more of sharing the development of the Scottish brand and the built legacy in Scotland. Further exposure is needed to bring the relevant craft designers and studyimbued architects into their own. In describing the Scottish movement, for example, a glance at the circle of Washington Browne, MacLaren and Flockhart would illustrate its diffusion, a note on the artistic partnerships between the architect, Thomas Duncan Rhind and his sculptor brother, William Birnie Rhind, would show the nature of the movement’s permeation. Evidence that Burnet, Leiper and Kinross were not unremittingly thurled to ‘standard methods and normal materials’, as Carruthers implies, would better calibrate the Scottish perspective. Burnet’s churches on Arran, and Kinross’s estate buildings at Manderston and Altyre, not least, can not be dismissed by the label of ‘arts-and-crafts style’, and those working with them need to avoid any suggestion of the reduced significance that this unjustly brings. The Arts and Crafts Movement in Scotland would make a generous present for someone new to appreciating the beauty and reality of English-inspired arts-and-crafts art work in Scotland, or similarly needing a qualified introduction to the arts-and-crafts movement for architecture north of the border. Deborah Mays, chief executive officer of built environment consultancy The Heritage Place
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgyMjA=