Boardroom table with a story up for auction

The table, which served Ewan Kennedy for many years in Faulds Gibson & Kennedy, has been brought to the attention of SLN in case any readers are interested in making a bid as it is “unlikely to sell for anything like its true worth, as something of a work of art”.

Mr Kennedy obtained the table in 1993 when a friend, “the gifted amateur yacht designer and artist, David Ryder-Turner” offered to build it for him “if I made a modest contribution to the cost”.

He said: “He did not tell me that he was minded to enter a design competition for which a commercial commission was a necessity. Many years later, a client in the furnishing industry recognised it as having won.”

He added: “David was, like myself, obsessed with boats and the sea. He started out training with a builder of torpedo boats before his military service took him to post war Hamburg, when he and friends spent two years sailing a beautiful yacht they had commandeered, and he then had a career lecturing at a university in Australia.

“On his retirement, he returned to Scotland with a log of Tasmanian Huon pine, which provided the material for the table top. The work of making it was given to the craftsmen at the old McGruers boatyard, and they did a fine job.”

Mr Kennedy concluded: “The table served us well for many years in Royal Exchange Square, its history occasionally providing an escape valve in those sticky moments in consultations, and it would be good to feel that it might continue to do so.”