The Millinery Works GALLERY

THE glasgow style

12 - 30 June 2002

     Click on small image to enlarge then click back to return to this page

Glasgow Re-visted

Due to a growing interest in the designers of the Glasgow School and following the success of our previous exhibition in 1999 ‘In the Glasgow Style’, we felt it would be appropriate to re-address this subject. During the last few years more work has been done by students and academics such as Peter Trowles of the Glasgow School of Art who has kindly written the introduction to this catalogue. We would like to thank him and all the other collectors and scholars for adding to the collective knowledge of this fascinating period in the history of design.

A Question of Style

In 1904, the Glasgow architect, designer and artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh was commissioned to design a writing desk for The Hill House in Helensburgh, the family home of Glasgow publisher Walter Blackie. The ebonised mahogany desk with metal, glass and mother-of-pearl inlay cost Blackie the princely sum of £20.15.6d. In February 1994, the same desk was one of over 150 lots auctioned by Christie's in London at a dedicated Mackintosh sale. It sold for £720,000 plus commission, a world record price for any piece of 20th century British furniture!

Whilst it is unlikely that this record price will ever be beaten, the level of interest in Mackintosh's work remains at an all time high. Aside from exhibitions in his native Glasgow, the 1990s saw dedicated Mackintosh exhibitions in countries such as the USA, Colombia, Poland, Singapore and Japan. Closer to home, the Mackintosh heritage in Glasgow continues to be marketed extensively and the City's involvement with the recently established Réseau Art Nouveau Network has centered on Mackintosh's contribution to late 19th century architectural design across mainland Europe.

There is now a good selection of Mackintosh books readily available, from the seriously academic, to the 'mass-market' picture books at bargain-basement prices. Museum stores, gift shops and even the Internet are awash with Mackintosh-related merchandise but the widely used phrase 'Mockintosh' says much for the quality and justification of many of these 'inspired by' products.

Although Mackintosh's recent high profile has done much to raise awareness of Glasgow as an artistic powerhouse, he is often seen as the only figure of note to emerge from the city's School of Art around 1900. Not surprisingly, this is far from the truth.

As a student of the Glasgow School of Art in the late 1880s Mackintosh was just one of over a thousand fellow students who attended classes in an ever increasing range of design and craft-based subjects. Moreover, whilst the majority of these students were perhaps unremarkable in their individual talents, a small but significant group (including Mackintosh, his wife Margaret Macdonald, Margaret's sister Frances and her husband Herbert MacNair) went on to raise the reputation of Glasgow's artistic standing. At first this was achieved locally, then nationally and finally internationally through exhibitions in Vienna, Turin and elsewhere.

Whilst Mackintosh's work can be viewed in museums and galleries across the globe and more pertinently in the very buildings he created such as the School of Art, the work of fellow artist-designers including George Walton, E A Taylor, John Ednie and George Logan remains far less prominent. Unlike much of Mackintosh's output many of the best examples of work by Taylor, Ednie et al (including furniture, metalwork, glass and illustration) remains in private hands.

And what of the women artists and designers, who studied at the Glasgow School of Art - for by 1901 over 47% of the students were female? Like many of their male colleagues, most women artists and designers from this time have received little public attention. In fact, it was to be an exhibition as part of Glasgow's celebration as European City of Culture in 1990 that finally projected the so-called “Glasgow Girls” to the fore. Curated by the late Jude Burkhauser ‘Glasgow Girls: Women in Art & Design 1880-1920’ was one of Glasgow's most successful and popular exhibitions during 1990 and the accompanying catalogue (under the same name) remains the foremost publication on the subject.

Admittedly, the work of artist-designers such as Jessie M King, Ann Macbeth, Jessie Newbery, Annie French and Helen Walton was already appreciated long before Burkhauser's efforts but since then, their importance both academically and certainly commercially has risen considerably. Of these artists it is perhaps Jessie M King whose work has the largest following. Like her contemporary Mackintosh, King's designs (chiefly in book illustration) found favour on the Continent from the late 1890s onwards. A century later in 1999, an exhibition to mark the 40th anniversary of King's death was shown at the Tolbooth Arts Centre, Kirkcudbright and then later at the Glasgow School of Art and was a resounding success. Surprising then that the most authoritative book on her life and work (The Enchanted World of Jessie M King by Colin White), first published in 1989, has long been out of print.

So what of the future? Certainly the market for all things Glasgow Style (Mackintosh included) shows no sign of weakening and although their remains a dearth of published works on the subject, more and more academic research is being undertaken. It will surely just be a matter of time before this private research is translated into commercially available titles that will only increase interest in the subject still further.

For the likes of the Glasgow School of Art (with its own established collection and archive of related material) this interest is more than welcome. Significantly, the last few years have seen an increase in the popularity of work by a slightly later 
generation of Glasgow women artists and designers such as Kathleen Mann (textiles), Bessie MacNicol (painting) and Elizabeth Mary Watt (ceramics and illustration).

The Glasgow School of Art has had an excellent record in producing skilled artists, designers and architects for well over 150 years. Whether the students who graduate from the School today will ever be lauded with as much praise as Mackintosh, or even Jessie M King, only time will tell. However, I suspect that in a 100 years time, curators, gallery owners, dealers and the public alike will be praising the contribution of Glasgow's latest generation of artists and designers.

Peter Trowles
Taffner Curator, Mackintosh Collection, The Glasgow School of Art.

THE EXHIBITS:

FURNITURE

     Click on small image to enlarge then click back to return to this page

1. Charles Rennie Mackintosh: an ash ladder back side chair with woven seat probably made for David Gauld, 
circa 1893, ht 45” (114cm). See Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Roger Billcliffe

     Click on small image to enlarge then click back to return to this page

2. From a design by Charles Rennie Mackintosh: a mahogany cabinet with 4 leaded glass doors with stained glass decoration and open centre section with arched frieze and copper repoussé handles and hinges made by Guthrie & Wells, circa 1900, ht 54” (137cm) wth 111” (282cm) dth 15” (38cm).
See Charles Rennie Mackintosh Roger Billcliffe, a similar cabinet was designed for William Davidson at Gladsmuir 1898

      Click on small image to enlarge then click back to return to this page.

3. Charles Rennie Mackintosh: a stained oak round table with square cut-outs to the legs and double cross stretchers, circa 1900, ht 28” (71cm) diam 26” (66cm).

A direct comparison with the table made for the billiard room in Miss Cranston’s Willow Tearooms now in the Glasgow School of Art collection shows that the construction method, the staining, the cutting and the dimensions of the oak i.e. the thickness of the top and legs are identical. This table is obviously by the same maker. We are grateful to Peter Trowles of the Glasgow School of Art for assisting in the identification of this piece. See also Charles Rennie Mackintosh Roger Billcliffe pg 138.

4. Charles Rennie Mackintosh: a Windsor chair with slatted back on moulded seat and turned tapering legs united by stretchers in original emerald green paint designed for the Dutch Kitchen, Argyle Street Tearooms, Glasgow 1906 the top rail later inscribed “Secretary Ours Chair” for the Glasgow Philological Society, ht 28.75” (73cm). The majority of these chairs were later over-painted in blue.

5. Herbert MacNair (attributed designer): an oak low chair with leather upholstered seat, circa 1898, ht 21” (54cm).

Next page of catalogue

back to Home page

back to previous furniture exhibition

Contact us paul@millineryworks.co.uk