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Description: | The furniture collection provides important material evidence of the history and development of furniture in Scotland, and its use in an institutional and domestic context, within the formal rooms, lecture theatres, laboratories, colleges and halls of residence of Scotland’s oldest University. It represents the very fabric of University life. Individual items of particular significance include:
The Parliament Chair, c. 1640s-1660s, said to have been used as the Speaker’s Chair when the Scottish Parliament met in the University building afterwards known as Parliament Hall in St Andrews, 1645-6. Believed to be the only surviving piece of furniture with associations with the original Scottish Parliament.
Blackstone. Stone stool on which students taking the Master of Arts degree sat for the oral examination. In use from the 15th to 18th centuries.
St Andrews Cupboard, c. 1500. Oak cupboard incorporating linenfold carving and decorated with thistle, rose and marguerite motifs. The design may symbolize the marriage of James IV of Scotland and Margaret Tudor of England in 1502.
A highly decorated wooden stand designed to bear a casket containing a plaster cast of the skull of the University’s founder, Pope Benedict XIII, by Robert Rowand Anderson, c. 1897.
Orkney chair, ?early 20th century
The pulpit from which John Knox is popularly reputed to have preached in the town kirk, Holy Trinity, inciting the destruction of the Cathedral (however, it is probably of a slightly later date).
Pulpit for St Salvator’s Chapel, designed by Sir Robert Rowand Anderson, c. 1901 (currently on loan to National Museums Scotland).
Various charter chests, including five probably from the 17th century, three of which are specifically associated with the University and its colleges.
Three clocks designed by Joseph Knibb of London: two regulator clocks and one of the world’s earliest split seconds clocks. Commissioned in 1673 by James Gregory, Professor of Mathematics and inventor of the Gregorian reflecting telescope.
The interior decoration of several of the University’s rooms is also of interest, e.g. the Senate Room (1826), most of the present fittings of which were designed by Sir Robert Rowand Anderson and date from 1897-98; the student bedchamber or ‘bunk room’ in St Mary’s College, the 18th century fittings of which are preserved; and St Salvator’s Chapel, which has undergone several major refurbishments since its foundation in 1450. | Subjects: | BENEDICT XIII FURNITURE Scottish Parliament ROWAND ANDERSON GREGORY SIR ROBERT JAMES CLOCK SCOTTISH HISTORY | Source: | University of St Andrews | Address: | KY16 9AJ | Creator: | University of St Andrews | Contributor: | University of St Andrews | Identifier: | HC:C47 | Language: | en-GB | Relation: | MC:C48 |
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