Set of three albums of original albumen prints showing interiors.

Wylie & Lochhead's photographic in-house showroom books, illustrating a series of interiors in excellent, finely detailed images. The Glasgow-based company of cabinet makers and upholsterers flourished between 1829 and 1957 and played a significant role in disseminating fashionable taste to a discerning clientele. By the 1880s, the firm had showrooms in London and Manchester and "throughout Europe and the Empire this gigantic concern controlled a network of agents and buyers. Wylie & Lochhead had undoubtedly become the largest business of its kind in Scotland, employing as it did some 1,700 people in 1882. Their success was characteristic of the rise in the late nineteenth century of colossal furnishing firms which could cope with their clients' every need from cradle to grave. And in Glasgow the furnishing industry thrived from the custom generated in what was 'the Second City of the Empire', 'the Workshop of the World'. No expense was spared to secure the best art talent in the market. Apart from commissioning designs from well-known English and Continental artists, Wylie & Lochhead always kept an eye out for Scottish talent" (Kinchin). The volumes are accompanied by manuscript index leaves (unfortunately missing from the second volume) that identify the subject of each photograph, the architect involved, and the owner of the house pictured. The styles slightly predate the arrival of arts and crafts, although some show its early influence, and a hint of japonisme is apparent in others. All of the homes are in England and include Hatfield House (Marquess of Salisbury), Ascott (Leopold de Rothschild), Mentmore (Lord Rosebery), Eaton Hall (Duke of Westminster), and Bagshot Park (royal residence, rebuilt in 1879). There are two yacht interiors: the steam yacht Sunbeam (launched 1874), of which there are four images, which was owned by Thomas Brassey and made famous by Anne Brassey in her best selling A Voyage in the Sunbeam (1878); and Galatea (Lieutenant William Henn RN, launched 1885), an unsuccessful Scottish challenger for the America's Cup in 1886. Juliet Kinchin, "The Wylie & Lochhead Style", The Journal of the Decorative Arts Society 1850 - the Present, no. 9, 1985. 3 vols, small folio (332 x 290 mm). Approximately 180 original albumen photographs (215 x 275 mm), mounted on heavy paper leaves. Vols I and II bound in purple half roan, spines ruled and numbered in gilt, purple morocco-grain cloth sides, sides and corners edged with paired gilt fillets, front covers lettered in gilt; vol. III similarly bound in dark green half roan with matching cloth sides. Wylie & Lochhead ink stamps to front free endpapers. Bindings refurbished (joints, spine ends, and corners, colour and gilt retouched), touch of foxing and dust-marking to endpapers. A handsome set.