A DESK owned by the man who commissioned Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s “domestic masterpiece” – the Hill House in Helensburgh – has returned to the property for the first time in more than 60 years.
Publisher Walter Blackie placed the desk at the heart of the Hill House’s library when it was completed in 1904. It remained in there until Blackie’s death in 1953 when it was moved to the home of his daughter, also in Helensburgh.
The desk then passed to Blackie’s granddaughter Ruth Currie in the 1970s. She offered to donate the desk to the National Trust for Scotland (NTS).
Emma Sweeney, visitor services supervisor at the Hill House, said: “We’re very grateful to Ruth for donating her grandfather’s desk to us, as having original items of furniture really helps us to tell the story of the Blackie family and maintain the aesthetics of the home as it stood in the 1900s.”
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