british patrons of modern design || catherine cranston

The Decorative Arts Society 1850 to the Present

Catherine CranstonAuthor(s): Pamela RobertsonSource: The Journal of the Decorative Arts Society 1850 - the Present, No. 10, BRITISHPATRONS OF MODERN DESIGN (1986), pp. 10-17Published by: The Decorative Arts Society 1850 to the PresentStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41809151 .

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Catherine Cranston

by Pamela Robertson

Catherine Cranston (1849-1934) was a remarkable business woman and patron of the arts in Glasgow at the turn of this century (fig 1). From small beginnings she established four suites of commercially successful and artisti- cally distinguished Tea Rooms in the city centre. For their refurbishment she selected, initially, a number of well-established architects and designers. But it is for the schemes commissioned from the then little-known, younger designers George Walton (1867-1933) and Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) that Miss Cranston 'merits the art historian's unstinted gratitude'.1

It is not surprising that Kate Cranston followed a career in the catering business for her family had a long association with the trade dating back to 1778 when a Great- Uncle James opened the Bay Horse Inn at East Calder near Edinburgh.2 By the middle of the nineteenth century, the family was well established as hoteliers with properties in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London. Nor was it against family tradition for women to enter the business. Her father's second cousin Kate Cranston took over the management of two Edinburgh hotels after the death of her« brother Robert in 1892, a recommendation specifi- cally made in his testament,3 and her own second cousin Mary Cranston Mason (1846-1932) ran the Washington Hotel, Glasgow - a wedding present from the bride's father -from 1872.

Following the example, however, of her brother Stuart, Miss Cranston established herself not in hotels but in tea rooms. The growth of the tea room movement appears to have been a phenomenon of the late nineteenth century, pioneered in Glasgow.4 Stuart Cranston, a tea importer, is credited with opening the first Glasgow tea room in 1875 in the back room of his shop at 76 Argyle Street. Cran- ston's Tea Rooms Ltd., a separate company from Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms, became one of the most successful enterprises of its kind in Glasgow with properties in Buchanan Street, Argyle Aracade, Renfield Street and Queen Street. By 1905 the company was in a position to issue debenture stock worth £250, 000.5 In 1889 The Bailie commented, The Tea Room is among the newer features of Glasgow life. Not so long ago there was now- here for those who desired refreshment beyond the bar of the public house and the parlour of the restaurant.'6 By 1901 it could be claimed, 'Glasgow, in truth, is a very Tokio for tea-rooms.'7 This remarkable expansion was a by-product of a prospering commercial centre, assisted by the ever-strengthening Temperance Movement.8 The properties were generally city-centre based, usually con- versions of existing buildings, and often in basements where rents were low. They provided refreshments and leisure facilities throughout the day for men and, increasingly, for ladies. Its heyday lasted till the 1920s.

Miss Cranston began as a restaurateur in 1879 at 114 Argyle Street, Glasgow, in the basement of Aitken's Hotel but it was not till the mid- 1 890s that the business expand- ed. Her marriage in 1892 to John Cochrane (1857-1917), a wealthy engineer,9 undoubtedly enabled new develop- ments. According to family tradition, Cochrane's wedding present to his bride was a lease for the entire site at 114 Argyle Street.10 Over the next decade additional properties were acquired at 205-2 1 7 Ingram Street, 9 1 -93 Buchanan Street and 215-217 Sauchiehall Street. In 1901 a Tea House and Tea Terrace (fig 2) were run at the Glas-

gow International Exhibition, and the White Cockade Restaurant at the 1911 Scottish Exhibition in Glasgow.11

Miss Cranston's greatest period of expansion and development was the mid- 1890s when she employed four different architects to remodel her recently-acquired properties: George Washington Browne, Buchanan Street, 1 896; Kesson Whyte and William Scott Morton, Ingram Street, mid- 1890s; and David Barclay, Argyle Street, 1897 - exterior only. Though no records have been traced of exterior work at Ingram Street, the Buchanan Street and Argyle Street facades survive virtually intact. These present contrasting architectural styles. Buchanan Street (fig 3) is an elegant example of the short-lived François I revival with areas of gracefully carved detail. Locharbiggs red stone and Prudham yellow stone were used in hori- zontal bands for decorative effect. The Argyle Street facade (fig 4) presents a more austere but equally striking frontage with fanciful detailing in the roofline. All existing mouldings were removed, and the frontage roughcast grey from the eaves to the signboard. Gables and dormers were more elaborately treated, and a turret, red-tiled like the roof, erected. The entrance door, bow window and sign were to George Walton's design.

Fig. 1. Catherine Cranston - till her death Miss Cranston favoured the fashions of the mid-nineteenth century. © Annan, Glasgow.

The interiors are known only from a few photographs by the distinguished Glasgow photographers T & R Annan.12 Browne's Buchanan Street rooms occupied four floors with a central well at the rear and were on the whole well- porportioned, well-lit interiors. But into these he intro- duced detailing which was often intrusive particularly when set against the stencil decoration and furnishings of Walton and Mackintosh. The Studio magazine was outspoken in its criticism, ' . . one wishes that the artist (Mackintosh) had been able to control the structural features of the place he had adorned. Some iron ventila- tors of commonplace design ruin at least one of these walls and clash painfully with Mr Mackintosh's work.

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Fig. 2. Miss Cranston's Tea House, Glasgow International Exhibition 1901. Courtesy of the Mitchell Library, Glasgow.

Other features of the woodwork are also so ornate and superfluous that one regrets their intrusion, not the least because the actual carving expended is good and the designs, considered apart from their share in the scheme of the buildings, quite meritorious'.13 One interior, the Ladies' Tea Room, seems stylistically to be entirely Browne's work with the exception of the light fittings and possibly the leaded glass windows. A panelled room with carved wooden booths, it appears conventional in com- parison with the work of his younger Glasgow contem- poraries. At Ingram Street, Annan views survive of the Gentlemen's and Ladies' Tea Rooms by Kesson Whyte and Alexander & Howell, of the Dinner Room and Lunch Room (fig 5) by Scott Morton, and a Smoking Room by an unidentified designer. These present similarly conventional panelled walls, floral patterned wall decoration and standard versions of Windsor chairs.

Miss Cranston's first major commissions comprised a secure selection of architects and designers. George Washington Browne (1853-1939) had received his initial training in Glasgow before moving in 1875 to London and to Edinburgh in 1881. In 1872 he had become an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy and from 1884-86 was President of the Edinburgh Architectural Association. Major architectural commissions prior to 1896 included the Central Station Hotel, Glasgow 1882-84, Edinburgh Public Library, 1887-90, and the Edinburgh Royal Hospital for Sick Children, 1 892-99. By 1897 David Barclay (1846-1917) had over 30 years experience in the profession in Glasgow. The partnership with his brother, Hugh (1828-92), was principally a school-building one - by 1909 David claimed to have designed some 40 schools. Buildings pre- 1897 included a group of churches such as the elegant, classicial St. George's-in-the-Fields, Glasgow, 1885, and the Munici- pal Buildings and James Watt Memorial Buildings, Greenock, begun in 1897. William Scott Morton (1840-1903) was born in Carluke, near Glasgow. Origin- ally trained as an architect, he founded Scott Morton & Co. in Edinburgh in 1 870 concentrating on the decorative arts. Design work included furniture, carpets, upholstery, tiles, woodwork, stained glass and grates with much of the execution done in-house. A new product was T ynecastle Canvas', an embossed wall and ceiling covering, devel-

oped in 1881 with financial support from John and James Templeton of Templetons' Carpets, Glasgow. The company had close links with Glasgow, particularly with the Templetons, and completed a number of interior commissions in the city. Little is known of the Glasgow-based furniture company Alexander & Howell which flourished from the 1880s to the turn of the century. They appear to have specialised in Jacobethan, Louis Quinze and other standard styles of the period. To date, however, Kesson Whyte has proved an elusive figure.14

Miss Cranston's one-off commissions to these well- established designers and companies had little effect on their careers, though Scott Morton is known to have been subsequently involved with at least one of the Cranston hotels.15 Rather their significance lies in helping to estab- lish Miss Cranston's preference for the more progressive designs of Walton and Mackintosh.

George Walton's first commission from Miss Cranston came in 1888 as is recorded in The Studio , ' . . it is a remarkable fact that while George Walton was yet a bank accountant, he accepted a decorative commission con- nected with a new smoking-room for one of these tea rooms.'16 No records survive of this early interior though two photographs of the Argyle Street T ea Rooms before the major redecoration by Walton and Mackintosh in 1897 are contained in Annan's records.17 Walton's first major commission came in 1896 with the decoration of the newly-acquired Buchanan Street property. There he designed all of the furniture, the majority of the light fittings, and the mural decoration for the first two floors. The execution of his designs was carried out by his own company.

Annan's photographs again provide an invaluable record of the schemes, as well as demonstrating the range of facilities provided - General Tea and Dinner Rooms, Ladies' (fig 6) and Gentlemen's Dinner Rooms, Billiard Room and Smoking Gallery. The views illustrate Walton's eclectic inventiveness and innovation which were derived in part from the Arts and Crafts movement, in part from C. F. A. Voysey, and in part from the aesthetic designs of Whistler and Godwin. Eight different designs for elegant high and low-back chairs are shown though none of the

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tables can be clearly seen. The light fittings are often complex but unobtrusive creations using unshaded bulbs and slender, twisted and curved metal structures. Stencil decoration is used extensively on walls and ceilings, often in large-scale stylised plant designs in repeat patterns, or compositions on a floral or figurative theme filling an entire section or wall. The stencil decoration in particular prompted favourable comment from The Studio with reference to the work of both Walton and Mackintosh for the 'systematic conventionalisation of form, the use of bright colours, and the absence of hackneyed motives . . . the movement ... is worth study and worth out-spoken approval, for one has but to call to mind the platitudes in the flat which adorn(?) the walls of most of our public buildings to feel grateful for any consistent effort to pro- duce something at once novel and, in its own way, beautiful.'18

The following year Walton again worked at Argyle Street, again in collaboration with Mackintosh. He designed the panelling, screens, fireplaces, billiard tables and wall decorations in an equally imaginative and progressive manner as at Buchanan Street. For the first time he intro- duced decorative stained glass on a large scale, and for the first time designed a range of copper and leaded glass panels.19

This was Walton's last commission for Miss Cranston. By 1898 he had moved to London, though retaining his Glasgow premises till 1905 when the company was wound up in Scotland.

Undoubtedly, even without Miss Cranston's early support, Walton would have moved from banking to design. He was a member of a large artistic family: his father, Jackson, a minor painter; his brother, Edward Arthur Walton, a leading Glasgow Boy painter; and his sisters, Constance, Hannah and Helen, all artists. While still working in the British Linen Bank, he attended even- ing classes, probably at Glasgow School of Art and at the studio of P. McGregor Wilson.20 Support was forth- coming from his friends and artistic connections in the early 1 890s with small interior commissions from such as Sir Frederick and James Gardiner, wealthy patrons of Glasgow Boy James Guthrie; Guthrie himself, the artist Whitelaw Hamilton and the photographer James Craig Annan (1864-1946) who commissioned frame mouldings and decorative schemes for his premises as well as schemes for his own home, the latter in collaboration with the architect Fred Rowntree. In 1896 and 1897, through Fred Rowntree, Walton received two café commissions in Scarborough from John Rowntree & Sons and William Rowntree respectively, and by 1898 there was sufficient work in the area for him to open an office in York. At this time, too, he made contact with George Davison of Kodak which led to major commissions for exhibition stands, shop fronts and interiors in London, Glasgow, Milan, Brussels and Vienna.21 By 1898 his future was secure enough for him to leave Glasgow.

Nevertheless, Miss Cranston's patronage was of importance to Walton's career. The small 1888 commission provided encouragement at a critical stage, and the Buchanan Street and Argyle Street interiors constituted his first extensive decorative schemes. Their publicity value was considerable, the interiors being freely acces- sible and favourably received, particularly by The Studio.

Miss Cranston's most famous and creative architect and designer was, of course, Charles Rennie Mackintosh. His

remarkable schemes are well-documented and discussed elsewhere22 and shall be only briefly outlined here.

Fig. 3. Buchanan Street Tea Rooms 1 896 - facade by George Washington Browne. From The Builder's Journal, April 15th, 1903, courtesy of the Mitchell Library, Glasgow.

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Fig. 4. Argyle Street Tea Rooms 1897 - facade by David Barclay. From The Builder's Journal, April 1 5th, 1903, courtesy of the Mitchell Library, Glasgow.

Following Walton's departure in 1897, it was to Mackin- tosh that Miss Cranston turned for all future design work. Their partnership lasted for over 21 years from 1896 till 1917 when Miss Cranston began to withdraw from the business. Mackintosh was involved in all four of the Tea Rooms. At Buchanan Street he designed mural decorations and certain of the light fittings, and at Argyle Street loose furniture and light fittings and, in 1906, the Dutch Kitchen. In 1900 he remodelled certain of the interiors within the existing Ingram Street premises and the newly-acquired adjoining property at 215. This was the first project for Miss Cranston where he had complete control over the interiors. Subsequent work included the Oak Room, 1907, the Oval Room and Ladies' Rest Room, 1909, the Chinese Room, 1911, and the remodel-

ling of the Cloister Room, 1911-12.215-217 Sauchiehall Street, Miss Cranston's last major development, was acquired in 1901 . The interiors were designed by Mackin- tosh from 1903 and the Willow Tea Rooms opened to the public in October 1 904. It was the last complete suite of tea rooms by Mackintosh and the one occasion where he had responsibility as architect. Behind his white-painted, virtually unadorned facade, Mackintosh created some of his most sophisticated interiors. At ground and mezza- nine level the high-ceilinged Front Saloon, low, dark Back Saloon and top-lit Gallery formed a sequence of inter-connecting but contrasting spaces. On the first floor was the major interior, the Ladies' Room or Room de Luxe, richly decorated in silver and purple. On the floor above were a Billiard Room and Smoking Room. In 1916

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Fig. 5. Lunch Room , Ingram Street Tea Rooms c. 1 895 - architecture and decoration by William Scott Morton. © Annan, Glasgow.

Mackintosh decorated and furnished a basement exten- sion, the Dug-Out.

Of all her designers, Miss Cranston's patronage was of the greatest importance for Mackintosh's career. It constituted a substantial proportion of his relatively small output, providing regular work particularly during the lean years before he left Glasgow in 1914, and during the difficult war period when the Mackintoshes were in London with few jobs coming in. More important the commissions provided Mackintosh with valuable opportunities for artistic experimentation. At Buchanan Street, for instance, in conjunction with J. & W. Guthrie,23 he produced his sole major scheme of stencilled mural decorations. For Argyle Street, he designed his first high- back chair, now virtually synonymous with his name. In Ingram Street he conceived and executed his sole creation in gesso, the large decorative panels The May Queen. At the Willow he devised some of his most ingenious spatial exercises, and his most poetic interiors. As with George Walton, the commissions prompted crucial critical acclaim early in his career both in Great Britain and on the Continent.

Considerably more is known of the commissions than of the patron herself who remains an elusive personality. Undoubtedly, Miss Cranston was meticulous in all aspects of the running of her business.24 Every detail received thoughtful attention - graphics, for instance, were commissioned from such talented Glasgow School of Art trained designers as Margaret Macdonald Mackin- tosh (1864-1933) and Jessie M. King (1875-1949).25 No records, however, survive of her early life which might explain her discriminating patronage. It is not known what influenced her choice of designer, nor, in particular,

how she first came into contact with the inexperienced Walton and Mackintosh. If any conclusion can be drawn it is that she was somewhat partisan in her selection - all of her known designers had Glasgow connections. No documents survive to record her working methods with architects and designers. With the exception of the few Dean of Guild drawings, submitted for building consent and not the client's comments,26 the only surviving designs are those by Mackintosh for the Tea Rooms and Hous'hill. The majority of these are owned by the Univ- ersity of Glasgow with a small number in private owner- ship. They are conspicuously free of revisions or annota- tions in the client's hand, unlike Mackintosh's experience with W. J. Bassett-Lowke,27 and conform closely to the executed originals. That Miss Cranston appears to have given her designers artistic freedom is further demon- strated by the conspicuous lack of a 'house style' - illustrated, for instance, by the contrasting facades at Buch- anan Street, Argyle Street and Sauchiehall Street. Of course, the avante-garde provided stylish self-advertise- ment, but Miss Cranston's interest, as far as Walton and Mackintosh was concerned, was on a private level also. As early as 1894 it would appear Walton was involved in a small commission for interior fitments and stained glass for the drawing room of East Park, Carlibar Road, Barr- head, the home rented by Major John Cochrane and his wife from 1894 to 1904.28 Three years later, in 1897, when Walton's company was floated, Miss Cranston in- vested £100 in 10 of the 300 available shares.29 In 1904 and 1909 Mackintosh was involved in more extensive furnishing and decorative schemes for the Cochranes' next home Hous'hill, a seventeenth century mansion in Nitshill (fig 7j.30 With her homes Miss Cranston was less adventurous than with the Tea Rooms, perhaps in defer- ence to her husband or from personal preference. Both

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Fig. 6. Ladies' Dinner Room, Buchanan Street Tea Rooms 1 896 - architecture by George Washington Browne; furniture, light fittings and stencil decoration by George Walton. © Annan, Glasgow.

Walton and Mackintosh were obliged to design around existing furniture and within existing architecture, and, though financially able, there is no evidence to suggest Miss Cranston considered commissioning Mackintosh to design a complete house for herself - a tantalising pros- pect - following the decision to move from East Park.31

Miss Cranston's championship of a new form of catering establishment, which created opportunities for imaginative decorative treatment, was coupled with an enthu- siasm, increasingly apparent, for adventurous design. In many respects she was an ideal patron, and her early support of Walton and long-standing association with Mackintosh - in whom, in many respects, she found her ideal designer - justify a place for her as a significant, if lesser-known, patron of contemporary design at the turn of the century.

Epilogue In 1917, the year of her husband's death, Miss Cranston disposed of the Argyle Street Tea Rooms, followed by Buchanan Street, and the Willow two years later when she retired from Hous'hill to the North British Hotel, Glasgow. The Ingram Street Tea Rooms were run by Miss Jessie Drummond, senior manageress from the Buchanan Street Tea Rooms, until Messrs. Cooper & Company purchased the property in 1930. In 1933 Miss Cranston moved to 34 Terregles Avenue, Pollokshields, where she died in April of the following year.

Only one of Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms continues as a restaurant. Buchanan Street, occupied briefly by the Overseas Club c.1918, was acquired by the London City & Midland Bank in 1920 and is now a branch of the Clydesdale Bank P.L.C. Manfield & Sons, the shoe retail- ers and present owners, purchased the Argyle Street property in 1919. From 1930 Cooper's Tea Rooms owned the Ingram Street premises till their purchase by Glasgow City Corporation in 1950. The interiors were stripped in 1971 and the building sold to the Reo Stakis Organisation who now run it as the Ingram Hotel. The majority of the interior contents are currently in store in Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries, though a small section of the Chinese Room is included in the City Art Gallery's per- manent display The Glasgow Style'. The Willow was purchased in 1919 by Smith (Glasgow) Ltd., restaura- teurs, and run as The Kensington until 1927 when it was

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Fig. 7. Dining Room, Hous'hill, Nitshill 1904 - light fittings, stencil decoration and curtaining by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. © Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, Mackintosh Collection.

purchased by Daly & Company. The firm was bought by the Scottish Drapery Corporation in 1934 who in turn were taken over by House of Fraser Ltd. in 1952. The property was purchased in 1978 by The Arrowcroft Group and, in conjunction with London Transport Pension Funds, the original Willow interiors were res- tored, and are now leased by M. M. Henderson Ltd., jewellers. Since 1983 the Room de Luxe has operated once more as a Tea Room.

Little remains of Mackintosh's Hous'hill interiors. The mansion was severely damaged by fire in 1937 and subsequently demolished by Glasgow Corporation, who had purchased the property that year to make way for the Nitshill housing estate. Miss Cranston retained none of the Mackintosh fixtures when she moved, selling the contents to the next tenant Mr Gamble who subsequently sold the majority at auction in 1933. The remainder of the fitments were destroyed by the fire or during demolition.

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References 1 Pevsner, Nikolaus, 'George Walton, His Life and Work', Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects , Vol. 46, 1939, p. 538. 2 Biographical notes in the possession of Dr C. J. Mackinlay, grandson of Mary Cranston Mason.

3 Scottish Record Office SC/70/4 - 26 1 - pp. 54 1 -60 1 . 4 Waddell, J. Jetirey, Some Recent Glasgow lea Rooms , lhe Builder's J our nal, Vol. 17, 1903, pp. 126-132. 5 The Story of the Glasgow Tea Rooms', Glasgow To-day , Glasgow, 1909, supplement pp. 1-4. 6 The Bailie , Vol. 35, 1 889, p. 1 . 7 Muir, James Hamilton, Glasgow in 1 90 1, ulasgow and bdin- burgh, 1901, p. 166. 8 King, blspeth, Scotland Sober and tree , Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries, 1979.

9 John Cochrane was principal partner in the Grahamston Engineering Works, Barrhead, 1877-1917, and Provost of Barrhead, 1902-7.

10 See2. 11 General exterior views of the properties survive (Coll. Annan)

but no interior views. Both were unpretentious whitewashed buildings with open loggias. It is not known who were the architects for either though Mackintosh was responsible for untraced interior fitments in 191 1, see Billcliffe op. cit. below p. 214. 12 One copy of an illustrated booklet titled Miss Cranston's is owned by T. & R. Annan & Sons Ltd., Glasgow. It credits work at Buchanan Street to George Washington Browne, architect, and to George Walton & Co., J. & W. Guthrie and Charles Macintosh (sic), decorators; at the Ingram Street Tea Rooms to Kesson Whyte, architect, and Alexander & Howell, decorators; at the Ingram Street Lunch Rooms to Scott Mor- ton, architect and decorator; and at Argyle Street to George Walton & Co., decorators. Negatives for the Mackintosh/ Walton interiors at Buchanan Street alone survive. The booklet must date from c. 1 896.

13 White, Gleeson, 'Some Glasgow Designers', The Studio , Vol. 11, 1897, p. 97. 14 To date, no information has been located at the RIBA, NMR, HBC or in the Edinburgh and Glasgow GPO directories.

° acott Morton Letter Ledger, Vol. 3, p. 432, refers to work m 1906 valued at £3,000 for the Ivanhoe Hotel, London, owned by Sir Robert Cranston. I am grateful to Mrs Elspeth Hardie, grand-daughter of W. Scott Morton, for access to this and other information.

16 Taylor, J., Modern Decorative Art at Glasgow. Some Notes on Miss Cranston's Argyle Street Tea House', The Studio , Vol.39, 1906, p. 33. 17 They show the 'General Room' and are credited to George Walton & Co. This may be the early Smoking Room but a dining room is shown suggesting it is another scheme in which Walton's involvement appears to have been confined to stencil decoration and possibly a chair design. 18 White, op. cit., p. 100. iy Donnelly, Michael, ulasgow Stained Glass , Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries, 1 98 1 , pp. 2 1 -2. 20 Biographical notes in the possession of Edward Walton, Walton's grandson. 21 Muthesius, Hermann, 'Die Kodakläden George Walton's', Dekorative Kunst, Vol. 6, 1903, pp. 201-221. 22 Billcliffe, Roger, Charles Rennie Mackintosh: The Complete Furniture , Furniture Drawings and Interior Designs, London, 1979. 23 The Glasgow business of J. & W. Guthrie specialised in stained glass and furniture but executed much of Mackintosh's stencilled decorations. The Guthrie family had been in business since 1852. Further details, particularly on the stained glass, see Donnelly op. cit., p. 1 6. 24 Downie, Alison 'Kate Cranston by those who knew her', Glasgow Herald, June 1 3th, 1 98 1 , p. 9. " Mackintosh, M. M., White Cockade Restaurant Menu, 191 1 (Coll. Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow; Glasgow School of Art; Dr Thomas Howarth); J. M. King, Miss Cran- ston Lunch & Tea Rooms menu cover, 1913 (Coll. Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow) and menu, 1917 (Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries). M. M. Mackintosh, wife of C. R.

Mackintosh, was a gifted artist in watercolour, metalwork, embroidery, graphics and gesso. Ref. Reekie, Pamela, Mar- garet Macdonald Mackintosh, Hunterian Art Gallery, 1983. J. M. King was primarily a highly successful book illustrator, also designing costumes, wallpaper, silverwork, batik and ceramic decoration. Ref. Oliver, Cordelia, Jessie M. King, Scottish Arts Council, 1971. 26 Strathclyde Regional Archives - five designs for alterations 1900-1 Ingram Street, three designs for alterations 1916-17 Sauchiehall Street.

27 See previous article, A Model Patron: Bassett-Lowke, Mack- intosh and Behrens, by Louise Campbell. 28 Weyers, John, Glasgow Style in Barrhead , Glasgow Herald, June 6th, 1 98 1 , p. 7. In 1 98 1 the Glasgow Herald located East Park, Barrhead, and on stylistic grounds the drawing room details were credited to George Walton. This is corroborated by Pevsner's list, op. cit., p. 538, of Walton's commissions in the 1890s based on Annan photographs, now lost, which includes '1894: House at Barrhead'.

29 Scottish Record Office BT2/3457. 30 Billcliffe, op. cit., pp. 16, 17, 161-5, 198. 31 At her death in 1934 Miss Cranston's estate was valued at

£67,476. Scottish Record Office SC/36/5 1 - 246 - pp. 192-7.

Chronology of Known Commissions CRM : Charles Rennie Mackintosh ; all properties are in

Glasgow. 1888: Smoking Room, 1 14 Argyle Street - George

Walton. Early (?) Dining Room, 1 1 4 Argyle Street - George 1890s: Walton. 1 894 : Interior, East Park, Carlibar Road, Barrhead -

(?) George Walton. Mid- Remodelling, 205 Ingram Street - Kesson Whyte 1 890s: Interiors, 205 Ingram Street - Alexander & Howell

Interiors, (?) architectural alterations, 209 Ingram Street - William Scott Morton.

1 896 : Facade and interiors, 91-93 Buchanan Street - George Washington Browne. Interiors, 91-93 Buchanan Street - George Walton, J. & W. Guthrie and CRM.

1 897 : Facade, 1 1 4 Argyle Street - David Barclay. Interiors, 1 14 Argyle Street - George Walton and CRM.

1900: Interiors, 205-215 Ingram Street -CRM. 1 90 1 : Tea House and Tea T errace, Glasgow International

Exhibition - architect/designer unknown. 1 903 : Facade and interiors, 215-217 Sauchiehall

Street -CRM. 1 904: Interiors, Hous'hill, Nitshill - CRM. 1 906 : Dutch Kitchen, 1 1 4 Argyle Street - CRM. 1 907 : Oak Room, 2 1 7 Ingram Street - CRM. 1 909 : Oval Room and Ladies' Rest Room, 2 1 7 Ingram

Street -CRM. Card Room, Hous'hill, Nitshill - CRM.

1 9 1 1 : Chinese Room, 2 1 5 Ingram Street - CRM. White Cockade Restaurant, Scottish Exhibition - architect unknown; interior fitments -CRM; menu design - Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh.

1 9 1 1 - 1 2 : Cloister Room, 205 Ingram Street - CRM. 1 9 1 3 : Menu design - Jessie M. King. 1 9 1 6 : Dug-Out, 215-217 Sauchiehall Street - CRM. 1 9 1 7 : Menu design - Jessie M. King.

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british patrons of modern design || catherine cranston

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