Ceramics, Glass and Stained Glass
Detail of George Logan Foley Pottery plate. Image courtesy of Great Western Auctions
Glasgow Style ceramics are fairly uncommon. Objects in this category tend to include either hand-painted individual pieces or commercially produced tea and dinner services, manufactured outside of Glasgow to the designs of George Logan. It is difficult to attribute Glasgow Style motifs to the hand-painted ceramics since designers adopted their own distinctive style. However, commercially manufactured wares to designs by George Logan often adopt a Glasgow Style rose or even a tulip design. Examples are common as they were manufactured by a number of companies.
Tiles and stained glass with Glasgow Style motifs were used in domestic and commercial settings, featuring in fireplaces, doors and windows, in the houses and ‘closes’ of tenement buildings in Glasgow, still visible today. Distinct stained glass work was also carried out for architectural or interior commissions as well as for incorporation into furniture, jewellery and metalware, sometimes in enamel.
Other than hand-painted glassware, the only so-called Glasgow Style glass is Clutha glass designed by George Walton. Walton began working on the range which was retailed by Liberty from 1896. These featured patches of lustre with metallic streaks and bubbles, the glass always thick and symmetrical. (The original Clutha Glass was an Art Glass, designed by Christopher Dresser, with a look and technique that hailed back to earlier days, in the style of Roman or Venetian glass. Despite referencing the past, it would have appeared very modern and fashionable in it's time). Herbert McNair is understood to have produced various glass and stained glass objects, recorded from various publications and exhibitions - yet remain untraced.
Enamel was often used in Glasgow Style designs, within jewellery and furniture, a technique that was re-invented in the day and is associated with Art Nouveau.