A SCOTTISH ARTS & CRAFTS OAK OVERMANTLE CARVED BY GEORGE SCOTT LAMB FOR THE DRAWING ROOM OF HIS HOU

A SCOTTISH ARTS & CRAFTS OAK OVERMANTLE CARVED BY GEORGE SCOTT LAMB FOR THE DRAWING ROOM OF HIS HOUSE THE LATCH, BRECHIN, 1899 the six central panels crisply carved with trees and emblematic plants above the inscription OH THE OAK THE ASH AND THE BONNIE IVY TREE/THEY FLOURISH BEST AT HAME IN THE NORTH COUNTRIE, the cornice dated on a banner 1899, the ash tree panel with two 'padlocks' one inscribed GSL/AL the other with the date 1898, 131cm h, 200cm wProvenance: By descent from G S Lamb to the late owner.The shackled initials are those of George Scott Lamb (1843-1933) and his sister Annabella (1846-1932) the children of David Lamb, JP (1797-1874) and his wife Ann, nee Brydon (1803-1882). The Lambs were prosperous textile manufacturers who lived at The Latch, a large Jacobean style Victorian stone house in Brechin. On the basis of its overmantle, Lamb was an accomplished woodcarver in sympathy with the 'Scottish Baronial' school of architecture but not blind to the emerging Scottish Arts & Crafts Movement. It is also both a symbol and a testament of the Lambs' decision as a bachelor brother and spinster sister to live under the same roof from cradle to the grave. When he died leaving an estate of £64,000, one of George Lamb's executors was Harold Bowman Gilroy of Fingask Castle, another being David Lamb, a nephew who by then had moved into The Latch.£300-500