Percy Macquoid
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File:Mr. Percy Macquoid, R.I. - The Graphic 1890.png
Percy Thomas MacQuoid {{post-nominals|country=GBR|RI}} (January 1852 – 20 March 1925) was a British theatrical designer and a collector and connoisseur of English furniture, and the author of articles, largely for Country Life, and of four books on the history of English furniture, the first major survey of the subject, which have been reprinted and are still of use today: The Age of Oak, The Age of Walnut, The Age of Mahogany and The Age of Satinwood, ending his surveys about the year 1800.{{cite news |title=Death of Mr. P. Macquoid |work=The Times |page=16 |date=20 March 1925 }}
These terms, particularly the first three, have become the standard terms for referring to these different periods and styles. Despite this respect for his observations and commentary, his historical research has often been queried.{{cite book|title=Oak Furniture: The British Tradition|last=Chinnery|first=Victor|publisher=Antique Collector's Club|location=Woodbridge, Suffolk|date=1979|isbn=0-902028-61-8|pages=87, 223, 241}} He collaborated with Ralph Edwards on The Dictionary of English Furniture (three volumes, 1924–1927). Macquoid's books were published by Country Life.
Biography
MacQuoid was born in Kensington, London, the son of writer Katharine Sarah Macquoid and book illustrator/watercolourist Thomas Robert Macquoid (1820–1912). He was baptised 10 January 1852.London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1917 He was sent to Marlborough College, where the schoolmaster told him, "You are a hopeless duffer at Latin and Greek, but you certainly can draw. I want you to make me a drawing." He was also educated at Heatherley School of Fine Art. the Royal Academy of Arts and in France.
His early career was as an illustrator and theatrical designer,Some of his [http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/fa/bjsimmons.series.html costume designs for B.J. Simmons & Co.] are at the University of Texas at Austin. whose illustrations in The Graphic Vincent van Gogh praised to Anthon van Rappard in 1883 as "the non plus ultra of elegance and mild refined feeling".[http://webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/12/R24.htm Letter, January 1883], webexhibits.org; accessed 6 December 2017.
File:Percy Thomas Macquoid - Macquoid-38549 - A Spanish Market - 1905.jpg
Macquoid was a favoured designer of the theatrical producer Herbert Beerbohm Tree, notably for Tree's 1906 productions of Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra and Nero.[http://www.oakknoll.com/detail.php?d_booknr=91083&d_currency= Macquoid contributed an essay to the booklet commemorating the fiftieth performance (9 March 1906)], oakknoll.com; accessed 6 December 2017.
In 1899, Macquoid produced decorations for the renovated St James's Theatre (demolished 1957-58) which were carried out by the leading London decorators Messrs. Morant and Co.[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=40575 'King Street', Survey of London: volumes 29 and 30: St James Westminster, Part 1 (1960), pp. 295-307]; accessed 30 March 2007.
For the great collector Lord Leverhulme, Macquoid designed the 'Adam Room' for the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, Liverpool. The work was carried out by the London decorating firm of White, Allom and installed the year of Macquoid's death. Macquoid had adapted principal elements from two documented Robert Adam houses: the plasterwork and colour of the walls derived from the Music Room at Harewood House, West Yorkshire, while the mirror above the fireplace is based on one at 20 St James Square, London.[http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/picture-of-month/displaypicture.asp?venue=7&id=320 "The 'Adam Room'"], liverpoolmuseums.org.uk; accessed 6 December 2017.
Following his marriage in 1891 to Theresa I. Dent, the couple built The Yellow House, Bayswater, London, to designs by Ernest George and Harold Peto. The couple spent summers and autumns at Hoove Lea, overlooking the sea at Hove. In both houses there was Macquoid's collection of 17th-century and 18th-century English furniture, cared for by "a devoted and efficient staff" (Edwards 1974).
In the May 1974 issue of Apollo, Ralph Edwards recalled his collaboration with Macquoid on The Dictionary of English Furniture.[http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0PAL/is_507_159/ai_n6152833 "From the Apollo archives"], findarticles.com; accessed 6 December 2017.
Publications
- {{Cite book
|last=Macquoid
|first=Percy
|authorlink=Percy Macquoid
|title=The Age of Oak
|year=1904
|publisher=Country Life
}}
- {{Cite book
|last=Macquoid
|first=Percy
|authorlink=Percy Macquoid
|author-mask=2
|title=The Age of Walnut
|year=1905
|publisher=Country Life
}}
- {{Cite book
|last=Macquoid
|first=Percy
|authorlink=Percy Macquoid
|author-mask=2
|title=The Age of Mahogany
|year=1907
|publisher=Lawrence & Bullen
}}
- {{Cite book
|last=Macquoid |first=Percy
|authorlink=Percy Macquoid
|author-mask=2
|title=The Age of Satinwood
|year=1908
|publisher=Lawrence & Bullen
}}
- {{Cite book
|last=Macquoid
|first=Percy
|authorlink=Percy Macquoid
|author-mask=2
|title=A History of English Furniture
|year=1919
|publisher=Collins
}}
- {{Cite book
|last=Macquoid |first=Percy
|authorlink=Percy Macquoid
|author-mask=2
|title=The Plate Collector's Guide
|year=1908
|publisher=John Murray
}}
- {{Cite book
|last=Macquoid
|first=Percy
|authorlink=Percy Macquoid
|author-mask=2
|title=Four Hundred Years of Children's Costume from the Great Masters 1400–1800
|year=1923
|publisher=Medici Society
}}
- {{Cite book
|last1=Macquoid
|first1=Percy
|authorlink=Percy Macquoid
|last2=Edwards
|first2=Ralph
|title=Dictionary of English Furniture
|year=1925–1927
|publisher=Country Life}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://catalog.nypl.org/record=b18632627~S1 Percy Macquoid costume designs for The Merchant of Venice, 1922], held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
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Category:19th-century English people
Category:English scenic designers
Category:Collectors from London
Category:20th-century English historians
Category:Date of birth missing
Category:People from Kensington