Cottiers is dedicated to researching and promoting the history associated with the building. In 2015 and 2016, we held a range of events to promote this research and its findings. The two conferences were in collaboration with Glasgow City Heritage Trust and were held in Cottiers and Websters. Below you can watch some of the lectures which were recorded as part of the Glasgow’s Gilded Age Project.
Glasgow had by 1864 matured as an industrial and commercial city. Since the 1780’s the city reputation as a mercantile community had been complemented by the rise of cotton spinning & weaving, and by the development of the marine engineering, locomotive building. The sophistication of the city by that time was clearly seen in the creativity of its architects, the best of whom were of European status. This talk will aim to provide a solid background and a consideration of the ‘Gilded Age’.
From the establishment of Carron Co in 1759 Scotland’s role in the manufacture of architectural ironwork was exponential and Glasgow was at it’s heart. Glasgow’s gilded age was also it’s golden age for this industry – perhaps the most important producer the world has seen.
It turns out that glamour was invented in Scotland: the word was put into popular use by no less that Sir Walter Scott in his romantic poems. His use of ‘glamer’ in a supernatural context came from the older Scottish word for magical or occult learning, ‘gramarye’ – also the root for ‘grammar’. This talk looks at the ways in which architects and designers ‘cast a glamour’ over the grit of Victorian & Edwardian Glasgow; and considers whether through this ‘glamouring’, the notion of the Gilded Age as observed by Mark Twain in America might apply to our own industrial and design heritage.
Holmwood House, a villa in Cathcart, Glasgow, was built in 1857 -8 is the domestic masterpiece of Alexander Thomson. It has been in the care of NTS since 1995 and this lecture will explore the challenges of recreating its sumptuous interiors and furnishing them. It is one of his few surviving buildings open to the public.
Famed as manufacturing innovators since 1837, the Glasgow- based James Templeton & Co produced numerous carpets for an array of occasions and interiors. In the late 1800s, the company’s design studio moved to the opulent Doge’s Palace inspired building on Glasgow Green. By 1913, Templetons were the largest manufacturers of carpet in terms of output, in the United Kingdom. This presentation will provide insights into the workings of the carpet design studio of this highly prestigious company. Connections between James Templeton & Co and The Glasgow School of Art, formed in 1845, will also be discussed.
Both the celebrated glass painters Daniel Cottier and Stephen Adam began their careers in Edinburgh but found their artistic opportunities in Glasgow. This paper will reflect upon why and how, in the 1860s, Glasgow began to lead the way in Scottish glass painting.