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MMXXVI · The Keep, Ketchum, Idaho
Mid-century modern furniture restoration · Graham Galleries
Lords of Lorne reclaims mid-century pieces from undignified circumstances and restores them to a standard their makers would recognize. The piece is what matters. We call it the Subject.
Every Subject that passes through The Keep receives Dalriada tartan-lined drawers, a hand-sewn tartan pocket, a brass MacDougall crest, and an engraved collector card that travels with the wood — not the wallet. The card is a deed. It names you Custodian. It does not reset when the piece changes hands. It compounds.
Our work is restoration of heritage. Yours is its care.
Mid-century furniture was built for a half-century. Most of it has now lived through that half-century and arrived, somewhere, in disrepair. Lords of Lorne exists to give it a third — by finding the pieces whose construction merits another fifty years, bringing them to Ketchum, and rebuilding them by hand, one bench at a time, documented as we go.
What arrives at your door is not refinished furniture. It is an authenticated continuation. You are not the buyer. You are its steward. The piece will outlast you. That is the point.
Subject.
The piece. Once it enters The Keep, it ceases to be a commodity and becomes a Subject of the Bloodline.
Custodian.
The owner. Furniture this old outlives buyers. You hold it for a while.
Reclamation.
What we do. Saving a Subject from circumstances beneath it.
Honest Patina.
The wear we preserve. Sixty years of life, visible.
The Keep.
Where the work happens.
The Bloodline.
The House of Somerled. The lineage we answer to.
Attendance.
The annual visit. We come to you.
The Warrant.
A commission. You tell us what to find.
Repatriated.
Sold. The Subject has gone to its Custodian.
Forced heat dries the joinery. Direct sun leaches the oil from the grain. The wood is alive, and living things require attendance. We are here to revive the craft of artisans — in Ketchum, where the work is hard, in a converted basement two blocks off Main, inside Graham Galleries.
A reclamation of the House of Somerled. Open by appointment to designers, Custodians, and the rare curious.
What the mountain does to mid-century wood →
The Dalriada · circa 1730
MacDougall worn, older than the clan tartan tradition itself. Discovered at Dunollie House, Oban — hand-sewn into every Subject.
The full history at House of Somerled →Once a quarter, Marcus and his daughter cross the Midwest. The summer drive lands in Ketchum at the end of July. Three Subjects have already been named. Happy to Warrant more, just ask.
You name it. We hunt it on the drive. Deposit $2,500, applied to the final price.
The House comes to you. We re-oil, calibrate, and update the chain of custody. $1,000 annually.
Made hundreds of Bowls of Soul at Java. Rummaged through the Gold Mine. Board Bin & Pio Days. This was 90's Ketchum, and I was teaching myself to code between shifts.
J.Crew came to shoot with Mariel Hemingway and needed a few more faces. Career pursuits took me from there. For twenty-five years, I built digital things — spaces and mechanisms used by millions, binary bits of ether in the world, never to take up physical space.
I'm older. My children are older. I came back to build something you can touch. Something lasting. Breathe life into things otherwise discarded. I hope this work brings you joy.
— Marcus Nelson, Lords of Lorne Proprietor
Read the founder's story →
Name the piece. The $2,500 retainer underwrites the search — credited to your balance at delivery. At The Find, Marcus sends photos and a retail price. 50% due to proceed. Balance on delivery, less the retainer. First-year Attendance included. Deposit terms apply ↗
This Subject is not yet in custody.
This Subject is on the list. The next drive runs this summer — if you want it reclaimed and in custody, issue a Warrant now. Your deposit holds the claim. The card gets engraved in your name when it arrives.