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Ceilings, Craigievar Castle
Drawing: J.J. Joass (1893)
Source: RIBA British Architectural Library Drawings & Archives Collection

Outside, Scottish tower-houses gain effect by contrasting shapes rather than ornamentation. Their busy rooflines are deliberately at odds with their plain lower storeys. Inside, however, decoration was often far more elaborate. At Craigievar, for example, superb moulded plasterwork ceilings survive, dating some time after 1617, some of the earliest surviving examples in Scotland.

This studious watercolour reveals the great range of decoration in two of the bedroom ceilings. A delight in pattern dominates, bearing obvious similarity to Elizabethan interiors and gardens in England. Looking more like lace than plaster, these inter-locking shapes are studded with pendants and shields. Around the edge of the ceilings, the cornices are alive with nature: vines nonchalantly twist and turn; tangles of hawthorns, flush with flowers and fruit, fill the friezes. All are modelled in high relief, remaining crisp to this day.

Such splendid workmanship like this could only be produced by skilled craftsmen. Moreover, such a detailed study, with its lightness of touch, only an outstanding draughtsman like J.J. Joass (1868-1952) could draw. As a student, his excellent measured drawings had won him the RIBA Pugin Prize in 1893. This paid for a study tour in the British Isles, and this sheet was part of his report. Looking at these delicate studies, it is clear why Joass won.