Identifying The Glasgow Style
Despite the recognition and commercial success of Glasgow Style designers at the time and their continuing popularity today, there is a dearth of accurate information or research for those trading or collecting. Often outdated sources are references and a plethora of different terminology is used including Glasgow School, Glasgow School Arts & Crafts, Scottish School, Glasgow Style Arts and Crafts / Art Nouveau and so on. So how do you recognise the Glasgow Style?
Here is a quick reference guide – although of course individual designers and mediums will feature their own particular distinctions.
Recognising the Glasgow Style
Date
Early 1890s – 1914
Some designers continued to work in the style beyond 1914
Designers
Look for an association with the Glasgow School of Art and/or with The Four.
A hierarchy of around 70 designers
• Charles Rennie Mackintosh
• The Four (Mackintosh, Herbert McNair, Frances and Margaret Macdonald
• Around 15 principal designers made up of the above plus: Jessie M. King, Talwin Morris, George Walton, E.A. Taylor, George Logan, John Ednie, Peter Wylie Davidson, Ann Macbeth, Margaret Gilmour, Margaret De Courcy Lewthwaite Dewar, Jessie Newbery
Mediums and Materials
Expressed mostly in metal, wood, ceramics and stained glass and illustrative graphics.
Textiles, common at the time, appear less often now.
Full interior schemes were common at the time.
Click on the links to view the individual pages for more guidance
Motifs
Glasgow cabbage rose / roses
Distinctive shapes including hearts, squares, lines, sinuous curves, strong taut verticals.
Celtic knots and designs
Stylised forms based on Nature: flowers, seed shapes, tulips, pendant flowers, almond / bulb or teardrop shapes.
Birds/birds in flight, peacocks, dragonflies, butterflies, owls, moths.
Female figures / willowy human forms
Distinct lettering
Colours
Subtle tones of pink, purple, green. Black and white as contrasts.