Saturday 27 July 2013


The Wind in the Pines.


A Celtic Miscellany

Illustrated by Andrew Kay Womrath (1869 -1939), John Duncan (1866 - 1945), Charles Mackie (1862 - 1920) and others


Published by T N Foulis Ltd in 1922.
 48 unpaginated pages. 19.5cm x 26cm

I picked up this book recently, intrigued by the illustrations, which seemed particularly beautiful and at a quick glance seemed quite Beardsley like in style. A bit of research later and I managed to learn that the book had been produced to raise funds for the Outlook Tower (Camera Obscura) in Edinburgh.The Outlook Tower had been purchased by a Patrick Geddes in 1892 to enable visitors to properly view the surrounding landscape. A bit more research told me that Geddes could be properly described as a polymath, being an accomplished botanist, town planner and a pioneer of ecology and sociology. He was born in Dundee and was regarded as a guru to the artist John Duncan, also born in Dundee, who is also represented in this book. Both men were very much at the heart of  the Celtic Revival movement in Scotland. Patrick Geddes was knighted in 1932.
The Wind in the Pines is a lovely hardback book with embossed gilt decoration in an arts and crafts style. The book contains 10 full page black and white illustrations together with headpieces ( some by John Duncan) and ornaments and a selection of poetry by Robert Louis Stevenson, Fiona Macleod, Sir Noel Paton, Rosa Mullholland, Earl of Southesk and others.












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