About

At the Sign of the Pelican

We source and stock antique furniture and works of art originating exclusively from Scotland, and are unique in this respect.

View our stock here or by appointment at our showroom in Cupar, fifteen minutes from St Andrews.  We believe it all to be beautiful, interesting and distinctively Scottish, by nature of its form, design, materials, origin or provenance (with a few exceptions when we can’t resist them).

Although all our stock is in good order we like things, like people, to reflect their age.

Sebastian Pryke MA(Hons) PhD FSA Scot

Sebastian’s passion for and knowledge of Scottish furniture originated with the research he carried out for his doctoral thesis on the Eighteenth Century Furniture Trade in Edinburgh. This has led to a career in Scottish heritage, art and antiques, initially as an Historic Buildings inspector at Historic Scotland and then as a Fine Art auctioneer. He became a director of Phillips Scotland and subsequently head of furniture at Lyon & Turnbull, where he was instrumental in helping to re-establish the firm as one of the UK’s leading independent auctioneers.  This was followed by a decade working as one of two risk and valuation advisors within the art and private client division at Hiscox, the specialist high net worth and fine art insurer, where he had particular responsibility for country houses and building reinstatement valuations.

In 2016 Sebastian established his own consultancy providing services to the fine art insurance industry, as well the wider antiques and heritage sectors, and in 2017 he launched At the Sign of the Pelican.

Background

Sebastian had a childhood interest in country houses which developed when he went to St Andrews University to study Art History, and in particular the decorative arts and architecture of Scotland.  A family background in conservation engineering inspired a curiosity about craftsmen and their relationship to the design process and this in turn led to his undergraduate dissertation on the Edinburgh cabinet maker Francis Brodie. Brodie was father of the infamous Deacon Brodie but a fascinating figure in his own right.  The realisation that there was a wealth of largely unknown primary sources relating to the early Scottish furniture trade – invoices and accounts in family papers, legal records, newspapers, etc – in turn encouraged him to research his doctoral thesis.   

Sebastian has contributed to many academic Journals as well as more popular magazines, including numerous articles for Country Life, and has recently supplied Scottish entries for the British and Irish Furniture Makers Online database.  He has lectured widely, including for the Furniture History Society, NADFAS and the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and has appeared numerous times on television and radio in the course of his career as an auctioneer.  Sebastian’s interest in the creation and development of country houses resulted in a long term commitment to the Historic Houses Association for Scotland, where he served for over ten years as the Secretary, Events organiser and a Committee member. He has also been a Council member of the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland and a Convener of its Forth and Borders branch, a Council member of the Cockburn Association (Edinburgh’s civic trust), a Council member of the Furniture History Society, and a member of the curatorial panels of the Hopetoun House Preservation Trust and the Paxton Trust.

In the course of his career Sebastian has visited, inspected or carried out research at most of the major houses and collections of Scotland.  He made significant contributions to Christie’s catalogue of the contents of Dumfries House, Ayrshire, as well as writing a chapter on the furnishings of the house in the recent monograph published by RCAHMS; he also researched and wrote on the history and significance of the plenishings and interiors of Hopetoun House, West Lothian, as part of its successful application to the Heritage Lottery Fund and created an initial catalogue of the furniture at Paxton House, Berwickshire. Alongside Dumfries House, Hopetoun has one of the finest collections of 18th century furniture in Scotland, including many significant Scottish pieces, and Paxton is celebrated for its commissions from Thomas Chippendale and William Trotter of Edinburgh.