M.H. Baillie Scott, Arts & Crafts House Photos, Rosewall, Wimbledon

Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott (1865-1945)
The Garden Front of 'Rosewall', Calonne Road, Wimbledon
A Pair of Original Gelatin Silver Prints
Unknown Photographer for 'Country Life'
English
Circa 1909

Label retained to the back of one frame for 'The City Frame Co Ltd, 34 Coleman Street, London, E.C.'

Measure:-
30.5 cm x 45.5 cm (Each (Framed))

Provenance:-
Mr & Mrs. Humphrey William Morris, Rosewall, Calonne Road, Wimbledon

Literature:-
Illustrated p.118 (the closer-in image) Volume I of "Small Country Houses of To-Day", Sir Lawrence Weaver (Editor), London, Country Life, 1910.

A very rare pair of Edwardian gelatin silver print photographs depicting the 'Garden Front' of the M.H. Baillie Scott designed house at Rosewall, Calonne Road, Wimbledon Common. Presented in their original oak frames with oak slips, beneath original ripple glass.

Rosewall was designed and built between 1908 and 1909 by Baillie Scott for the Old Carthusian lawyer Humphrey William Morris (b.1883), partner in the law firm Messrs. Morris & Co., No. 2, Walbrook, London, E.C., and his wife Muriel (nee Vercoe). Mr. Morris was a keen sportsman who listed his 
recreations as including rowing, motoring, and mountaineering. He
twice rowed at Henley Royal Regatta and won the 'Canoeing Paddling Championship' in 1904. His wife also played hockey and other sports. It is interesting to note that the lawn has been marked out with a tennis court (a post and net are also visible to the right of the more distant picture). The eldest of Humphrey & Muriel Morris's three children was the distinguished legal scholar John Humphrey Carlile Morris QC (1910–1984) who was born in Rosewall.

The house was written-up in "The Lesser Country Houses of Today: Rosewall, Wimbledon, Designed by Mr. M. H. Baillie Scott" pages 181-183 Country Life Magazine, 19th February 1910. The nearer image illustrates the article - which also reappears as Chapter XXV, p.118-122, Volume 1 of "Small country houses of to-day" edited by Sir Lawrence Weaver, London, Country Life, 1910.

The description of the house concludes "The simplicity of Rosewall is real and not mannered. It is such a building which makes true the phrase of Ruskin: " No architecture is so haughty as that which is simple; which refuses to address the eye, except in a few clear and forceful lines;... and disdains either by the complexity or the attractiveness of its features to embarrass our investigation, or betray us into delight."

In due course Rosewall became home to the engineer Charles William Bate Crossley (1868-1941) and then to Sir Cyril Wilson Black (1902-1991), the Conservative MP for Wimbledon from 1950-1970.