If you enjoyed our feature on the painting of the Queen Mary ocean liner, here is the full transcript of John Christie’s lecture from 1936. John oversaw the decoration of the entire ship between 1935 and 1936 while he was working for Glasgow decorating firm Guthrie & Wells.
Twelve months and more have gone since in a moment of weakness – literally weakness for I was then a sick man – I suggested to our Chairman, more in the spirit of apology in having failed to attend a meeting, than with serious intention, that the committee might consider sending one of our younger members on a voyage of adventure into the realm of the interior decoration on board the Queen Mary.
My proposal that a suitable young man should be selected and that at the expense of the Institute he should proceed to New York and back aboard this masterpiece of engineering skill.
I attached one condition to my proposal – that our nominee should devote a reasonable amount of his time to a careful and critical review of the decorative work in the principal rooms and that his notes and impressions should become the subject of a paper to be read at one of our meetings this session.
Now, Sir, in recalling these facts I am not leading up to a complaint. I have, indeed, no grounds for complaint, for not only did you pay me the high compliment of accepting the suggestion made, but with financial reservations you convinced the committee to approve.
I count it worthwhile amongst a body of men such as here represented who have so much in common that we should observe the characteristics of each other to the end that we may know each other better, and here let me, in passing, illustrate the subtlety of our Chairman’s character.
One day he came along and he said: “Look here, John, I have been looking into the financial position of the Institute” – fancy a decorator looking into a financial position!
Already I had forebodings of something ominous, when he said: “Your idea about the Queen Mary lecture is quite good but it is not a practical proposition. The committee, in addition, feel that it is too important a subject for one of our younger men and they are behind me to a man in expressing the view that you should take it yourself.”
My only justification for mentioning this matter is as a warning to others in making suggestions, for please observe that my well intentioned shot came truly back like a boomerang on my own head.
The purpose of our meeting tonight is to consider matters of mutual interest in the decorative finishing of the Queen Mary – the latest contribution of works of man to the history of shipbuilding and the story of the sea.
By the courtesy of the Cunard Publicity Department, I was privileged to make a voyage on the ship in October last, and with your kind indulgence I shall proceed to tell you a few of the impressions I formed.
As I advanced along the quayside approaching this great vessel at Southampton dock, there flashed before my mental eye a series of pictures illustrative of the romantic story of ships.
Such is the speed of thought that wireless and other modern inventions become by comparison slow motion pictures.
I saw as through a veil, the representatives of ancient dynasties going down to the sea in ships.
I thought of Egypt and Assyria, of Greece and Rome. As in a dream I had a vision of those stout hearted Phoenician traders. I thought of the voyages of St Paul in the middle sea. Pictured before me were scenes of his shipwreck; of his consultations with the sailor men and of his amazing knowledge of matters nautical.
I saw Columbus pleading with his government and with the Spanish court for their support of his enterprise, and again I saw him on board the Santa Maria out there on the wastes of the south Atlantic in argument with his crew and opposed to fearful odds, and then I heard a powerful voice: It was the voice of that Hebrew sailor who, having sighted land from the mast-head, turned in his excitement, shouting aft to his commander, “land ahoy”!
Pictured before me were those graceful Viking ships with their sturdy Norsement raiders.
I saw Drake aboard the Golden Hind on his voyage round the world and then appeared upon the screen a fleet of ships with the lines of racing yachts tearing across the Indian Ocean every sheet of canvas spread.
I could not make out the chant which made music in the air, but these words kept ringing in my ears:
“From China Ports to London Town in 90 days, in 90 days”. I was amazed.
Surely this was a fleet of the famous tea clippers not unconnected with the history of Glasgow and there in all its majestic grace ploughing through the bounding main that most famous of them all – the Cutty Sark.
Born she was in a yard adjoining Brown’s and hammered into shape by the grandfathers of those craftsmen who brought the Queen Mary into being.
I beheld, as I had done previously as a child, that forerunner of all really big ships: that glorious failure, the Great Eastern lying at anchor on exhibition at the Tail of the Bank.
I saw the Rex, the Savoia, the Europe, the Bremenr, the Normandie.
And then, looking around, I beheld the majestic prow with those enormous downcast sleepy, yet ever watchful eyes out of which there hang to port and starboard to the 50 ton anchors of what is perhaps the greatest passenger ship that ever sailed the sea.
The romance of the sea makes entertaining reading but it belongs to the past and except for the experience we must not look back. Its chief attraction is that we do not have to suffer any more of the hardships so frequently connected therewith and so I leave it.
A floating home
Many papers have been written on the purely technical side of this great national enterprise wherein the searching and important character of the many problems with which builders and naval architects were faced have been explained and deliberated upon, questions as to the preservation of the natural sheer and camber of the ship and of uptakes, for the products of combustion generated in the engine rooms below must be dealt with and passed through to the funnels with the maximum efficiency and the minimum of inconvenience to the planning of those public rooms amidship. Problems – thousands of them and about which even experts differ.
While it is in the planning, designing and decorating of the ship that we are primarily interested, the points to which I have made passing reference are of fundamental importance and whether in dealing with questions of interior decoration or in the criticism of the completed work, one must try to focus all such matters into a proper relationship.
Let us then, in considering the superficial decorative effects, not complain if the plan and layout is not in all respects what we might wish it to be, were we dealing with a structure built upon a rock.
Let us remember that this mighty structure is for the time being the floating home of 4,000 souls.,
It has to face the elements on the broad Atlantic and all that is incidental thereto. It must first of all be a ship. Everything on board must be ship shape.
It is, therefore, essential that the architectural designer or interior decorator should accept gladly whatever limitations of structure may be considered necessary and exhibit his ingenuity as a designer by planning a scheme of decoration in a rhythmic or in a symmetrical manner according as circumstances may dictate.
The decorator – I use this word in its broadest aspect – who approaches his problem from any other angle is wrong before he starts and let me say at once that in the Queen Mary those fundamental considerations have been acknowledged and accepted, no doubt after many conferences and under expert advice by owners, builder, engineers and decorative architects. All have contributed their quota to the solving of difficulties which at one time may have appeared almost insurmountable.
That patience and forbearance to every practical consideration; that indomitable will to meet and overcome every obstacle has, in the end, been crowned with complete triumph.
The ship is a monument to human endeavour; an achievement in which we can take national pride and by which this island race has again the honour of carrying the Blue Riband of the Atlantic.
I am told that 70,000 gallons of paint were used on board. How much of this is represented by what may be considered industrial or protective painting as distinct from work of a decorative character I am not in a position to say, but one of my first impressions after wandering over the ship from stem to stern was that relatively less paint has been used on the decoration of the Queen Mary than any other great passenger liner that has gone before.
Paint, in the form of at least in which it is used by the house and ship painter as a decorative finishing material, has been replaced in a variety of different ways.
Someone said in my presence, “Why it’s all plywood”!
You will observe as I proceed to a description of some of the public rooms that there is much truth in this comment and as decorators we may pause to give this matter thought, for it is not unconnected with other questions which have been the subject of deliberations at these meetings.
Step back for a moment to Victorian times and you will be able to imagine a discussion over the purchase of furniture or wall panelling. “Is it solid wood?” “ No, it’s just veneered!”
The popular idea regarding the veneering of timber even in the days of comparatively recent history was the covering up of something inferior.
Whatever justification there may have been for this attitude, in fact, it is on the contrary, a perfectly legitimate use of the finely selected parts of the tree devised by man’s ingenuity for use in a way that would not be possible were he to rely on solid timber.
As a conception it is not even new, for we are told that the pillars of the Temple of Solomon were overlaid with fine gold – veneered.
How extravagantly we used timber in furniture in those Victorian days and otherwise. In this respect, we have travelled a long way and laminated boards with a veneer of some special kind of wood is now so universally adopted that by its use a veritable revolution in the design of our interiors has resulted.
In this ship too, may be seen enormous surfaces of private bathrooms and lavatories previously dealt with almost universally in enamel paint, now covered with a form of plywood having on the face of it a washable, non-inflammable film which is obtainable in many appropriate colour finishes.
Non-ferrous metals abound on all hands used as a decorative material. You will find such metals in strips as a cover joint, as a decorative band, on doors complete, on the surrounds of doors and on grilles, railings etc.
White metal known as silver bronze is a very prominent item of decoration.
In many of the private suites one has to look specially for any evidence of the use of paint.
The wall surfaces of many of those special apartments are finished completely in inlaid and veneered woods of contrasting colours. In others, the wall panels, surrounded with hard wood siles, are stretched with fabrics.
There is no evidence throughout this stupendous ship of rococo extravagance: no evidence of repeating all those architectural features which have been the stock in trade of architectural designers since the classic days of ancient Greece.
I found instead richness and dignity arising from the simple and frank treatment of well proportioned surfaces.
For splendour, dignity and exquisite taste may be born of simplicity and without enrichment provided suitable materials are employed and herein lies the outstanding quality of wood as a decorative material.
The enormous areas of floor surfaces represented by staircase, main landings on each deck, corridors etc, which are now generally covered with rubber or some form of linoleum appear to present great scope for big scale design.
The impression I formed was that the most had not been made of this item on board the Queen Mary.
And now let us, in imagination, start on the promenade deck from the shopping hall – the Picadilly of the ship and have a tour of inspection.
Writing room
Proceeding aft on the starboard side, we pass through the writing room with its appropriately designed fittings. Its walls of veneered timber with large scale photographs of places of interest on both sides of the Atlantic framed into the surface, and enter one of the most important public rooms on board.
The Cabin lounge
A vast, lofty hall 96 feet long, 70 feet wide and in the centre 30 feet high.
The smooth uncarved surface of the oval shaped columns which are such a striking feature of the room are in Mackore, sometimes called cherry mahogany. This wood comes from the Gold Coast and has warm, dark, irregular veining.
I find it difficult to describe in words the colour of this beautiful timber.
It has translucency of rich, red wine, but it is more brownish than what is popularly called Port.
The walls are in a warm maple burr and mackore.
The soffits and recesses in masur birch, the dark points of which on a lighter ground are infinitely pleasing.
More familiarly known as Russian birch, this wood has seldom been used before for large polished panels.
May I, however, pass over all the very interesting details of veneered boards, some 60 varieties of which have been used in the adornment of this vessel. May I rather try to paint a word picture of this magnificent room.
The wall surfaces extending to the full height of the room and combining the various timbers named provide the dominant colour note of the room – a warm, low toned, yet brilliant, brownish red, to which is opposed as a colour next in importance the heavily carpeted floor in grey green, as far removed from the secondary colour – green – as the walls are removed from the primary red.
This carpet is broken up by various low toned contrasting notes on a large scale conventional design, and though in direct contrast, is harmonious and satisfying.
Among the minor chords which go to make up the restrained colour scheme of the room may be noted the proscenium opening simply and beautifully draped in fabrics of rich texture in three layers surmounted by a pelmet in tones of pale gold, grey and green.
The large window openings on the port and starboard sides repeat the drapings of the proscenium.
Comfortable upholstered chairs are spotted over the floor in great variety. The coverings are not uniform, but are mostly quiet echoes of the colours referred to with an odd chair in a biscuit coloured fabric.
A small bright spot enters into the scheme occasionally in the form of a cushion or a lamp shade.
The ceiling proper, that is the highest portion in the centre of the room, is painted a pale beige.
This surface is deceptive as to colour. It looks so rich and is, no doubt, influenced by lighting which is partly concealed, partly admitted through lay lights and thrown upwards from eight massive specially designed features standing on the floor.
Those 12 roof lay lights are framed in with a broad fillet probably about 6” wide which is gilded.
I thought this a bold and courageous thing to do. One would have expected something garish and out of place to have resulted but such is the compensating value of gold – used with discretion – that it merely has the effect of carrying on to the ceiling the simple richness of the wall treatment without in any way disturbing the reposeful character of the room as a whole.
In judging such a room as this, one must take particular notice of lighting arrangements, for this factor in decorative work is of the utmost importance.
On a flat member such as I have referred to, the metal does not reflect as it would on an enriched or rounded surface; it tells more as a rich subtle colour and by its use there arises not a false and discordant note but, on the contrary, a quality of colour which is the very acme of refinement.
On the wall opposite the proscenium is an ambitious decorative gesso panel by Gilbert Bayes and Alfred J Oakley, cut out of soft plaster in position; it consists in the foreground of two large scale unicorns in the act of fighting. One also recognises hawks on the palm trees at the sides. The meaning of the mountain-like shape behind the animals is not easy to read; it might even be a fountain.
Anyhow, it is a piece of beautiful draughtsmanship and modelling. It is also skilfully coloured on a background of silver and gold. And here let me say that the execution of this shimmering metallic colouring is an example of craftsmanship well worthy of study.
In technique it is very different from the other metalled surfaces which I shall refer to anon.
The title of Maurice Lambert’s pierced relief decorations in pearwood is symphony. The design consists of floating figures representing music and singers.
Unlike the carved fawns in the adjoining gallery which are overpowering in scale, those applied decorations are not easy to read at their high position over the proscenium.
Some there may be who will consider the decorative scheme of this important room timid and unjustifiably safe for a public room in a great ship catering for the variety of tastes represented by the travelling public.
Considered as an empty room, it may be that there is something to be said for this form of criticism.
Imagine, however, what this quiet symphony in colour may become with passengers parading after dinner, in evening dress. And bear in mind, please, that this room is at once a concert hall, a cinema and a lounge.
A scheme might , of course, have been designed along more vigorous lines, but what has been done is one successful way of handling such a problem.
As decorators, possibly we should remind ourselves periodically when plotting out a colour scheme to visualise the ultimate effect. By doing so, we might more frequently deal with the surfaces as background rather than that our decorations should call undue attention or be competitive.
In this room for instance, the top notes of the scheme will be struck when the living ornaments appear on the scene with all their colourful jewels and rich regalia.
I cannot, in the time at my disposal, deal with all the minor items of furniture and furnishings – the cabinets, ornamental sculpture etc are most interesting and contribute their quota in the enrichment of a magnificent room.
Starboard gallery
The starboard gallery into which we now enter is a comparatively narrow apartment, rich and sombre in its panelling of brown Indian laurel wood. At both ends, that is forward and aft over the chimney pieces, there are decorative panels of flower studies by Cedric Morris. The naturalistic and somewhat delicate treatment of those panels, one feels, does not belong to the same room, in the decorative sense, as the overpowering large scale conventional carvings of huge fawns and palms on the inboard wall.
I wondered as I looked at John Skeaping’s three mural carvings if the scumbled gold and silver finish was an afterthought. Had they been left in natural brown timber they might have been less assertive and taken their place more restfully as part of the room.
The boldness of drawing and depth of carving would, without embellishment, have provided sufficient interest by reason of the play of light on the modelling.
As it is, they are too commanding.
The dance salon
Now we pass into the dance salon for decoration of which Miss Anna Zinkeisen (pictured above) is largely responsible for.
I have not been privileged to meet the lady and so I am quite unbiased in giving her full marks as a decorator.
The colour scheme of the walls in tones of beige, French grey, blue grey and silver find a sympathetic echo in the carpet and beautifully appliqued curtains.
In a cool, refreshing atmosphere eminently suited to its major purpose, one may have tea and light refreshment served on a raised dais on the starboard side opposite the band enclosed with an elegantly designed open metallic rail in silver bronze and glass, the broad coping of which is in Dubarry leather, and thus may be regaled while watching the graceful movements of those who foot it gently on the specially constructed dance floor.
The individual work of Miss Zinkeisen consists of four mural paintings representing the seasons, carried out in a style at once classic and modern.
Those black and white horses in Greek-like silhouette with extended mane: the graceful outline of the nymph-like figures: the playfulness of the themes and the simple technique command unstinted praise.
Jan Juta has designed and executed the decorated and mirrored glass.
One cannot go through the Queen Mary without observing the important part played by glass in decoration. It is a medium capable of infinite beauty.
The work of this artist is very successful as part of the general description of the room: more successful, I think, in technique and execution than in drawing. There are other examples of glassware the draughtsmanship is of a higher order.
And now, as a craftsman, I would like to dwell for a moment on another feature of this lovely room.
Certain portions of the ceiling and walls are faced up in mahogany with an incised overall pattern in outline of the heads of flowers and leaves, very simply rendered.
The idea is not only somewhat unusual, though I have seen similar work done on the bed ends and on other pieces of furniture of a suite for a young girls’ bedroom; but it is interesting also to think out the most effectual method of execution.
Here is a sample which I have prepared on similar lines which can be examined later.
After preparing the wood, the top section was gold sized and dusted over with gold bronze powder. When dry it was carefully glasspapered to do away with the possibility of thickened edges. The background was then gold sized and dusted over with silver leaf bronze powder.
Section number 2 was gold sized and dusted overall with silver leaf bronze powder and when dry the incision cut in with gold bronze.
Number 3 was treated in the same way as no 2 but in a cellulose medium and sprayed.
Number 4 was executed as the other nos, but gold leaf in two tones was substituted for bronze powder.
It has occurred to me that such a piece of work would not be without interest to those of our number who are responsible for the training of students in trade classes. To exhibit such a sample as I have before me and to invite a written specification of how to do the job would, I feel sure, produce a wide variety of answers. Helpful information could be imparted by the teacher in pointing out wherein such answers were faulty from the practical viewpoint and arising there from a sample board might be executed.
One reason why I have been prompted to deal at some length with this point is that the actual work to which I refer left much to be desired in execution and compared unfavourably with similar work on the gesso panel in the lounge; with mirrors in the same room and in the drawing room.
Smoking room
We now pass into the cabin smoking room, another ambitiously treated apartment which rises through two decks at the highest or centre portion of the room.
The ceiling is nicely formed into one panel, at two ends of which, the stile or lower portion of the ceiling is forms by three steps. The thickness of each step or face being enriched with a wave or serrated edge. The whole surface is finished a broken white and very properly so, for the lighting scheme. I thought, however, that the ceilings of the side compartments where the height is represented between decks only, the wall colour, or a lighter echo of it should have been passed on to the ceiling. The walls and ceiling meet at this point more sharply and the contrast is consequently sudden.
The wall treatment is in English pollard oak, officially described as tiger oak, presumably on account of the very definite tigerish stripes in two tones of brown markings. In general appearance the effect is a walnut rather than oak room; indeed there is a dado and low panels in quartered burr walnut. Some of the furniture, too, is in walnut cross banded in plain oak and there are excellent examples of leather craft on the fine easy chairs of various colours.
The four supporting pillars, oval on plan; go straight into the beam without moulding or gap.
James Woodford ARBS, is the artist responsible for the beautifully carved and pierced panels which screen a passage from port to starboard behind the large travertine mantelpiece, with its dog grate coal burning fire, the only one of its kind on board.
Those panels are in lime tree, stained to match the general tone. One side of each panel has five female figures in the form of mermaids. This is obviously the more important side, but they face into a relatively dark passage. One wonders why?
The other side, also beautifully designed and carved, symbolises the elements and other motifs.
Mr Woodford is also responsible for the trusses and modelled figures in bronze designed on playing cards – the King, Queen, Jack and Joker are represented and act as decorative features spotted round the frieze of the central portion of the room.
Officially described as wall sconces, those trusses function as a feature to conceal lighting. I felt them unnecessarily large and overpowering for the gothic-like figures above.
The lighting too, passing upwards from a position immediately below the figurines distorts them.
The window curtains in this room are less successful than in some of the other rooms. The woolly cross stripe, suggestive of home industries, was, I thought, a little lacking in fitness for a magnificently planned room with deep leather armchairs and the general atmosphere of a man’s room in a country mansion or a West End club.
The two paintings by Edward Wadsworth, one aft – a piece of decorative symbolism – the sea and one forward over the mantelpiece – a purely decorative rendering of a brigantine; both excellent pieces of decorative painting, but they fail to give one the feeling of being an integral part of the scheme. The colour is pitched too high for the sombre character of the room. It suggests that they were painted in the studio without due regard to the setting.
Long gallery
We entered the smoking room on the starboard side, so we will leave on the port side and go forward again through the long gallery.
This room is 118 feet long, about 20 feet wide and 12’ 6” high.
It acts as a corridor between the main lounge and the smoking room and communicates directly with the ballroom through two pairs of double doors.
Five sumptuous carpets in tones of stippled fawn and brown cover the floor, the runner extending the full length of the room.
One speedily realises that we have entered an apartment which presents problems to the interior designer.
The impression I formed was that those problems had not been dealt with here so successfully as in some of the other public rooms.
The features which dominate the scheme are two very large pictures – aft by Algernon Newton ARA, and a companion canvas forward by Bertram Nicholls, PRBA. The former entitled ‘Evening on the Avon’ is a typical English landscape, beautifully painted and redolent of rural peace. The latter an imaginative Sussex landscape characteristic of scenes which may be found around Arundel.
One hesitates to criticise the work of artists of international fame, but I thought both pictures, and particularly Nicholls’, too dark and the cow’s udders unnecessarily emphatic in colour.
Neither of the pictures belong to the room in a decorative sense, but even so I felt that had the room been so designed that they became framed into the very beautifully figured heartwood of Canadian birch which forms the inboard wall and overhangs that part of the ceiling which constitutes the passage, they might have been made to take their place in the room more successfully. As they are, they read as emphatic and isolated spots at the two extremities of a room of unusual proportions.
Betula is the name given to the wood I have described as Canadian birch. That fine timber known as makore is used on the doors; pale, demure maple burr also enters into the scheme and the lamp stands are in white maple.
I have referred only to a few of the euphonic names of timber on this ship of beautiful woods.
It is not, apparently, enough in these days to call timber or anything else by ordinary names – a descriptive word must be found – a proprietary word if possible, and just as we call the heartwood of Canadian birch betula.
The lighting is concealed in the cornice, supplemented by eight illuminated pylons and by illuminated wall panels.
Library
And now we pass through the writing room on the port side which corresponds to the room which functions in a similar way on the starboard side. Continuing forward through the main hall and shopping centre, we reach the library and on entering one takes notice of two large circular illuminated discs over each door – one with an incised outline of the old world and the other of the new.
This room in common with the ship generally, is lit by illuminated bands supplemented by other forms of lighting concealed or partially concealed.
The walls and chairs are in natural dull yellowish pigskin. On the walls, the skins are set out in rectangular shapes of convenient size, probably about 2’ 6” x 1’ 9”. The joints are butted, sunk and slightly emphasised by tooling.
The painted ceiling echoes in a lighter tone the colour of the pigskin walls finished in a natural wash which preserves the colour quality of the natural skin.
Veneered in light and dark burr oak is used on the gable or end walls and on the dado and bookcase fittings with sycamore rails. A black note is introduced with macassar on the base of the table legs and on the skirting.
A large scale modern design of carpeting covers the centre portion of the floor in delicate tones of drab, greyish blue and brown and this is sewn on to a plain drab Wilton surround which takes up the irregularities on plan of the alcoves in which the books are stored.
Wine coloured velour curtains on the windows complete the decoration and give a note of warmth to a restrained but appropriately decorated room.
Cocktail bar and observation lounge
I realise how tiresome this kind of description may become, but happily we are just approaching what is possibly the largest cocktail bar on the seven seas.
Let us enter.
Let me invite you to give play to your imagination.
Call your drinks and consider this one on me.
You will find the lists somewhere about. Take no notice of the prices and regale yourselves as I hasten on.
In the delectable atmosphere of this observation lounge, one may dine as a change from the restaurant on a platform behind its 21 windows below the Captain’s bridge which look directly over the bow of the ship and out to sea. You may, on the other hand, have refreshment with dignity on a chair at a table, or if you prefer, dangle your legs on a stool at the semi-circular 30’ counter.
Above this counter on a long frieze-like panel over the bar fitting AR Thomson has painted a brilliant caricature of types one may have seen in London celebrating Jubilee night 1935. It is indeed a brilliant piece of work, beautifully drawn and exquisitely coloured.
It is the sort of theme that crushes criticism, so happily and without effort does it hit off the spirit and atmosphere of a cocktail bar.
The walls are of a strongly figured burr maple with bands of contrasting mottled timber known as cedarmah.
The counter front is in macassar ebony broken into bands with gold and black.
The grills and the railing of the dais are in silver bronze designed openly with appropriate motifs – all the paraphernalia and equipment of that which is said to be conducive to good fellowship.
Concealed continuous trough lighting is provided, supplemented by bowl fittings on the ceiling and by pylons mounted on the balustrading.
Childrens’ playroom
In the childrens’ playroom, the next room into which we pass, there has been created a fascinating atmosphere – an atmosphere too, which to grown-ups suggests the idea of trespass. One feels it quite definitely as if it had been announced on behalf of that great community who, unlike Peter Pan, will some day grow up.
The message seems to say: “Keep off you big stiffs and let us do our stuff alone’. We have the sun by day: the moon and the stars by night all illuminated and all very real. We have an acrobatic bear riding a bicycle and carrying other bears on his back, including teddy and one who has fallen to the ground and who is crying like a big softy. We have silly little ducks that ‘quack, quack’ as they escape from the track of the wheels.
“We have a well padded helter skelter and in another children’s room, we can count the windows of our own Noah’s ark all the funny animals that were in the ark and in still another we have pigs whose ears we can pull as we sit on funny seats and when we look up on the wall we can see, oh, such an awful big bird with such awful big wings carrying Sinbad the sailor over the hills and far away.
“George Ramon, Harry Perry and Charles Baillie made all these things and pictures for us. They are the only grown-ups who know our lot and who are not numbered among the others who are just an awful nuisance.”
Drawing room
And now we reach the drawing room. Over the mantelpiece of golden streaky onyx a simple dignified feature is a characteristic and colourful mural painting entitled a flower market, which suggests Spain, Italy or the near east with a background of shipping.
At the opposite end of the folding doors which encloses the altar recess – for this room functions in a dual capacity – is a peaceful harbour scene of delicately coloured boats of the type one may see in the eastern ports of the Mediterranean.
Both paintings are by Kenneth Shoesmith RI.
The room generally is decorated in delicate pastel tones of blue, bluish grey and beige. The passage of colour from the carpet to the richly upholstered furniture was, I thought, particularly pleasing, but the curtain fabric – a very important note in the room – was not so happily selected.
The colour, also blue, was too dark and the pattern out of harmony with the carpet and upholstering.
When the room is used for the Roman Catholic Church service, the folding doors referred to are opened and the recess becomes an altar, the lighting of which is concealed.
The painted altarpiece by the same artist is called The Madonna of the Atlantic.
One cannot pass from this room without noting the special quality soft Wilton rugs in quiet tones of blue and gold. The two simple but very beautiful mirrors and the unique Chinese lacquer decoration in gold and silver on the upper part of a very handsome cabinet.
I shall not have time to review all the rooms of interest and so in passing let me say that Mr Shoesmith has other paintings in the tourists’ writing room. Two relatively small octagonal panels depicting Samuel Pepys at the royal dockyard and Richard Hakluyt recording the voyages of Elizabethan sailors. Both these panels are beautifully rendered and excellent decorative work.
Shopping Hall
This tour of the promenade deck has now brought us back to the point where we started and before proceeding elsewhere let us have a look round the shopping centre. Here is a rendezvous in the floating city.
Here is the life and colour of Regent Street, Bond Street or Piccadilly.
There is one large central outfitters store on what is almost an island site with other shops and showcases on each side.
Fascinating rains of beautifully selected hardwood is again the decorative medium and you may see displayed with taste and fitness examples of Burma cedar; English chestnut and sycamore, oak, beech and walnut, native timbers all and splendid woods, but the oyster coloured satin sycamore is quite exquisite. And there are examples in maple in sheen and markings that look like quilted silk.
Here also may be seen Indian silver greywood and in the book shop brown makore boldly striped in gold.
Here too you may rest awhile in a cosy leather covered chair in contemplation of purchases or to admire the fresh flowers spreading their fragrance from large jardinieres on the floor, or in admiration of Maurice Lambert’s sculptured frieze which crowns the outfitter’s shop, the theme of which is the activities of man in the realms of sport.
It is very nicely painted, scumbled and wiped giving the effect of ivory.
The same artist is responsible for the applied decoration in aluminium on the wall of the travel bureau on the main deck, the symbol of which is speed and progress.
The motif on the port side shows a streamline express and a centaur. On the starboard side is an airliner which is continued with a winged horse and rider – Pegasus.
Let us now take the elevator to the sun deck and wander through the gymnasium with all its ingenious apparatus for keeping fit and agile.
Around the room is a frieze by Tom Webster portraying in caricature, celebrities in the world of sport past and present, all of which are clever studies.
The squash racquets court is next door but there is something of greater interest aft in the veranda grill.
Having made a voyage on an ocean liner, having without the slightest success tried to suggest my humble financial position – for on board it is assumed that all cabin passengers have money to burn – one lets go that restraint which at home keeps one from falling into erring ways, and having met a few kindred souls, the thing to do is to have a private party either in on of the private dining rooms or better still in the veranda grill, for the prices there are higher and perchance the atmosphere more congenial for, tell it not in Gath, this is the nightclub of the ship.
One enters the apartment in the company of friends with all the dignity of a house painter and decorator earning £5 or thereby every week in life, all dolled up for the evening, but having partaken of good food well cooked, having indulged in the fruits of the earth in liquid form, that restraint and affectation which we call dignity passes off, one becomes natural, and then the band plays.
One cannot be a good decorator if one does not respond to other forms of artistic expression and so we foot it on the floor of sycamore as gracefully as may be possible, admiring all the while the decorative achievement of Doris Zinkeisen who was charged with the decoration of this room.
The crimson pile curtains with gold and silver stars are drawn across the large semi-circular windows through which in the daytime one would look out to astern to sea. Grey, silver and black are the other colours which prevail as a memory. The maple chairs, if I recall aright, are upholstered in pale blush rose and this colour is echoed in the illuminated domes in ever changing automatically controlled lighting expressed by a rose coloured mottle over a silver background.
Thirty feet or more of wall surface in slick vigorous decorative painting of the most provocative character sparkling in colour as well as in form and depicting scenes from the circus, the theatre and the pantomime, proclaim Doris as clever as her sister.
She will, I fear, share with the cocktailer the responsibility of many a late night.
Tourists’ lounge
From this position on the sun deck aft on the ship it may be convenient to review at least one important room in the tourist section – I must skip many of the rooms – but let us take the lift to the main deck and look over the tourist lounge. Margit Gilbert’s sketchy effortless paintings on pale grey green hide – the material used for covering the walls – appealed to me tremendously. The figures are too well drawn not to have been studied; they have , however, all the spontaneous quality of a first-time-one-coat job – no laboured undercoating, but the brush that painted those airy spirit-like figures had behind it an artist of imagination; a craftswoman who had command of her tools.
They illustrate ‘Dancing through the ages’.
How delicate, how full of grace, how simple, what beauty of line and how living withall.
The almost imperceptible washes of colour which suggest the secondary or background forms preserve a sense of completeness in each panel without competing in any way with the central motif of the subject.
There are nine of these decorative cartoons rendered in this novel and unusual way.
Egypt, Greece, China, Burma, France and the modern ballroom are all represented, nor is the rumba forgotten with West Indian performers.
The drapings of the proscenium are skilfully handled with curtains and pelmet in silver and green.
That peculiar golden quality on the outside of the doors is a selected maple. This wood is used in a variety of markings, some of which suggest quilting.
Other veneered woods which occur incidentally are sycamore, burr maple and thuya, a rich, deep, red, wood, sometimes called citron, with curly markings. The roof of the cathedral of the Cordova is, I understand, made of this timber.
Though less pretentious than some of the others, the decorative treatment of this room is an unqualified success.
Then in the entrance from the promenade deck, Nigerian drappe mahogany is used on the dado giving an old gold colour effect with a beautiful sheen.
And now lest I should bore you with description, I suggest that we finish our tour by paying a visit to the largest room on this magnificent ship – the largest dining room, I am told, on land or sea – the cabin restaurant on C deck. At 160’ long and planned to extend to the full width of the ship (118’) and passing through three decks to a height of 30’.
You may readily imagine the problems which such a plan involves from the viewpoint of the architectural decorator in dealing with the structural features and let me say at once that those features have been utilised to break up and enormous space and to render the vastness of the saloon into smaller and more intimate compartments.
Looking around, one is not conscious of that overpowering sense of size which is suggested by the fact that 800 people may be comfortably accommodated at dinner.
Wood is again the dominating decorative medium. Pergola from Brazil, light and dark, is the principal wood. It is a finely grained timber with entwining markings in tones of rich cinnamon brown.
In the scheme it is used with maple burr in panels and metal bands of silver bronze.
The lighting is cunningly contrived in panels on the soffits and upstands of the top bulkheads by illuminated bands and by lighting pylons.
The central panel of the ceiling proper is painted light to tone with the general wall colour, but the rich quality of the colour effect is influenced by the concealed lighting at this point.
Edward Bainbridge Copnall is the artist responsible for the carved features in pine illustrating the history of shipping which are spotted on the frieze-like space of the lower bulkhead.
There are 14 of these decorative relief features and being at a lower level than those similar features by Maurice Lambert in the main lounge, they are more easily read and appear to be in better scale.
Excellently attuned to the general colour scheme of the room, I was very favourably impressed with McDonald Gill’s decorative map which occupies a prominent position on the forward end of the room and measures 24’ x 15’. As a purely conventional piece of work I thought it the finest mural decoration on board (pictured above).
The map depicts the North Atlantic; through the cloudy stratosphere may be seen the ocean blue, with an electrically controlled model of the ship marking her position as she sails across the pond.
On the right hand bottom corner is a group of buildings which one recognises as London and on the corresponding left hand position may be recognised the skyscrapers of New York, while below is a simple wave band symbolising water in purple, blue and white.
The whole panel is broken up into rectangular shapes by a chequered line in silver with jewe;-like spots at the intersections.
A close study of this panel would reveal many interesting and legitimate tricks to gain the desired effect and apart from its artistic conception the execution has the precision and exactitude of the very highest standards of craftsmanship.
There is great scope in various forms of maps for mural decoration.
On the opposite end of the room, Phillip Connard RA has executed a large decorative painting, the theme of which is ‘Merry England’. It depicts English outdoor life. Although covering a very large area, about 26’ x 14’ it is not unduly assertive and has a tapestry-like quality.
My first impression of the realistic bird panels on the side walls by A Duncan Carse, was that they did not belong to the room. That is to say, they are not an integral part of the scheme as one feels in the case of McDonald Gill’s track chart.
They might be just as effectual elsewhere.
On reflection, I am disposed to reserve judgement and I am bound to say that those birds, representative of the feathered life of Britain and America, are beautifully drawn and superbly coloured, against a background of shining silver. One is drawn, magnet-like towards those graceful, dignified, colourful creatures for a close-up examination.
We must not pass on without observing the magnificent double bronze doors by Walter and Donald Gilbert, each scroll and circle of which contain a motif full of thought and interest: legends of sea voyages as recorded in Greek mythology, together with creatures of the air and of the sea.
Then Jacob Drew has a series of 24 illuminated glass panels illustrating the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece. To handle a difficult medium like glass and give a modelled effect to figure work and the head of the ram is deserving of the highest praise.
The chairs, an important note of colour in the room, are upholstered on the seat ad on the inside and outside backs in a rose coloured fabric on a framework of sycamore.
In each of the four small private dining rooms there is a printing by a famous artist.
Dame Laura Knight RA, whose characteristic wor on the theme of the circus is so well known, has a painting while delightful in reproduction was, I felt, overpowering in the small room.
The panel by Vanessa Bell is characteristic of a certain modern school of painters: one feels too near it in this small apartment.
Agnes Pinder Davis has executed an interesting piece of work in another of those rooms entitled ‘Sea Holly’.
Leaves intertwine with each other quite unconventionally. The decoration consists of cutting out the shapes of stems and leaves in white metal foil and fixing with some suitable adhesive to the plywood background; when dry the metal appears to have been tooled and incised to give added interest.
The panel by H Davis Richter RI, in the fourth room is perhaps the most successful in this series.
Bunches of colourful hydrangeas crowd the left hand corners; from a jardiniere placed on top of an old English lacquered cabinet hang a sweep of other flowers, while on the right placed on what appears to be a table are still life figurines in china with a spray of overhanging flowers.
The composition is happily entitled ‘The Joy of Life’.
There are, of course, many other rooms, some of which I did not even visit. There are for instance all the state rooms and the special suites in the description of which I might speak for hours. I have only attempted to review some of the more important public rooms.
As an indication of the thoughtful care which appears to have entered into every detail in the construction of this hip I may mention that every wardrobe has an internal light which illuminates the interior automatically on opening the door.
There is too, the work of many artists whose names I may not have mentioned. This does not mean that their work is in any way less important than those who have been named. It only means that time and time alone has prevented me from dealing with the subject completely.
In a brief review of a subject such as I have attempted one, naturally touches particularly on the work of individual artists, but on reflection one is bound to say that in the ship as a whole all those individual contributions assume a position of secondary importance and whenever this feeling is lost, the room suffers.
Having then named the artists, I would be lacking in a sense of perspective were I to overlook naming the architects who were responsible for the design and layout as a whole.
The Chief Decorative architects were Messrs Mewes and Davis, with Mr Benjamin Morris as a consultant.
I have reason to believe, however, that it fell to the lot of Mr JC Whipp to shoulder the chief burden and responsibility of the decorative scheme.
Mr EC Leach, a Fellow of the Institute of British Architects and head of the company’s furnishing department was directly responsible for some of the rooms and shared with eh expert constructing firms the heavy responsibility of the decorative furnishing.
I was privileged to return home after my voyage on the Queen Mary on another vessel of recent date – the Empress of Britain – on the finishing of which money was spent lavishly.
The Empress is, perhaps, the last of the luxury liners to be decorated after the manner of a sumptuous hotel. In its decoration, many distinguished artists were employed to deal with particular rooms and this experiment, if it be an experiment, cannot be regarded as successful.
The classic, pseudo-Venetian, Spanish, Chinese and so called modern period all have their place in this ship of bits and pieces.
The effect as a whole is singularly lacking in the quality of coherent thought which one sees evidence of in the P&O Company’s most recent liner, The Strathmore, where money was spent with much greater reserve.
As I left the Empress of Britain it was borne in on me that a great step forward had been made in ship decoration on the Queen Mary where the quality of unity has been preserved without any loss of variety.
I hope in this brief review I have succeeded in showing that there is variety in abundance.
It is a coherent piece of work wherein simplicity goes hand in hand with dignity.
As I passed through London on my journey north, I took the opportunity to visit St Paul’s cathedral.
When one enters this great church one is conscious of the spirit of the guiding genius – the architect. Working through a band of loyal, sympathetic and efficient craftsmen, a monument has been erected to Wren – the master builder – and so it should be on every important piece of work.
A decorative architect of distinction should be in control. In this way only may we hope to preserve those most important qualities of unity and coherence.
He must coordinate the work of all who make their contribution and if the master does pay the complement of calling in the assistance of individual experts or of expert organisations the job will be big enough and, let us hope the master broad minded enough to share with others, even if only by reflection, the glory which is his.
The completion of the Queen Mary has added yet another chapter to the history of shipbuilding; another contribution to art in industry.
It illustrates again what may be done by a combination of the forces represented by the creative mind working in harmonious and sympathetic contact with the skilful and cunning hand of the craftsman, an asset with which this nation is so richly endowed.
Here we have a ship, the building, engineering and even the decoration of which would not have been possible at an earlier epoch.
It arises from, and is the result of, experience gained by those other vessels which have gone before.
It is an emblem of the nation: one of the mirrors through which representatives of other nations will judge us and appraise our worth: an achievement in human endeavour dedicated to the sea.
It only remains for me to thank you for hearing me so patiently and in conclusion with the keel of the sister ship already laid at the same yard at Clydebank: with preparation for the building already well advanced, let us hope that, great as is the advance in ship decoration as exemplified in the Queen Mary, the best is yet to be.
Photographs: Mary Evans Picture Library; National Portrait Gallery, London; Peter Christie.