Studio: international art (39.1907)

Modern Decorative Art at Glasgow

BILLIARD ROOM AT MISS CRANSTON'S DECORATIONS AND BILLIARD TABLES BY GEORGE WALTON

TEA HOUSE, ARGYLE STREET, GLASGOW CHAIRS, ETC., BY CHARLES R. MACKINTOSH

that because of its striking unfamiliarity compels idea. No artist owes less to tradition than does

attention. Mackintosh ; as an originator he is supreme. The

From the lofty vane on Belgian-like roof, where critic who dismisses the new movement with a

a wrought-iron guard surrounds the chimney pots, sneer, or an unsympathetic allusion to its affinity

and the quaint dormer window with speckled glass to early Greek art, has missed the charm of

under the barge board, down to the sign of the intention that seeks to give a rational, a soothing

Tudor Rose over the unconventional entrance, it setting to the complex strenuousness of modern

all forms a fitting exterior for the modern art existence. If communities could be formed in

within; and the architects for the reconstruction, ideal towns and hamlets, founded on the best

Messrs. H. and D. Barclay, seem to agree with principles of the new art, the effect on individual

those who hold that there is an affinity between and national health and temperament would

that which is best in the old work and the new. quickly be manifest.

It is not easy to imagine what would be the A glance at the various rooms of the Argyle

position of modern decorative art in Glasgow to- Street Tea-House is interesting as showing the

day, apart from the group of tea-houses controlled unity that may result when two strong individualists

by Miss Cranston, for it is a remarkable fact that apply their minds to the same problem,
while George Walton was yet a bank accountant, he On the original part of the house comprising

accepted a decorative commission connected with the three public floors from the street level upward,

a new smoking-room for one of these, and when all the panelling, the dividing wooden screens, the

he abandoned finance to carry out this, his first grates, billiard tables, and decorations are by

commission, decorative art may be said to have George Walton; all the chairs, the benches, the

entered on the new phase at Glasgow. umbrella stands, and the electric fittings over the

It was on the same group of tea-houses that billiard tables by Charles R. Mackintosh.
Charles R. Mackintosh began to establish a claim The tea-room on the ground floor is remarkable

to leadership in the new school at Glasgow, and for an excellent piece of craftsmanship in the

to inspire some of the younger men with the new walnut panelling, the bridged stairway, and the

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