Lot 112: Drawings for the R.M.S. Queen Elizabeth Promenade Deck and "C" deck

Benjamin W. Morris (1870-1944)
Drawings for the R.M.S. Queen Elizabeth Promenade Deck and "C" deck
the first a freehand rendering in ink over a pencil tracing for the layout of Promenade deck; the second a plan view, in scale, for the main dining room in pencil on "C" deck, and dated Nov. 14th 1936; the third an overall plan view in scale of the Promenade deck, marked "Void" and with further notations "see later drawing" and "sun deck to be revised and coordinated with suggested revision"; the fourth an overall plan view in scale, in pencil of the Promenade deck - Scheme A, dated Nov. 6th 1936 as revised Nov. 15th 1936.
pencil on tissue paper
each 12 x 43 in. (30 x 109.2 cm.) and smaller. (4)

Because of Benjamin Wistar Morris' successful design of Cunard's building in New York, he was asked by Sir Percy Bates to collaborate on the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, two of the largest interior design projects in history, and to incorporate an element of "American" style and grandeur to these two ships. In a custom project as vast as this, a design committee oversaw the project. Benjamin Morris' duties included establishing the specifications for the interior design of the major public rooms and corridors, selecting the manufacturing firms that built the interiors and their furnishings, and then finding the appropriate artists that created the works of art for those spaces. Considering the enormity of the task and the diversity of the parties involved, Benjamin Wistar Morris and his collaborators achieved a remarkable unity of interior design that remain one of its great glories of Anglo-American architectural design (as still apparent on the R.M.S. Queen Mary).