Guthrie & Wells - Times Past
In partnership with the Glasgow Times, our archivists are exploring Glasgow's fascinating history. This week, Nerys Tunnicliffe writes about Guthrie & Wells.
The firm of Guthrie & Wells was long recognised as one of Glasgow’s most respected interior design and decorating businesses when they sadly closed in 2005. Associated in their early days with creating wonderful stained glass windows, the firm also commissioned furniture and designed all aspects of interiors such as carpets, flooring, fabrics and paint.
The collection from the company held in the City Archives includes a wide range of drawings from rough pencil sketches to detailed painted plans for sculptures, stained glass, furniture and even entire rooms for churches, theatres, businesses, and private houses. Some of the plans are proposed alterations or refurbishments, and there are different influences such as Art Deco, Art Nouveau and the Glasgow Style. Included are designs for the décor and interior features of local buildings such as the La Scala Cinema, Sauchiehall Street, the Royal Scottish Automobile Club in Blythswood Square, Green’s Playhouse, Renfield Street, and churches such as Shawlands Cross Church and Mount Florida United Free Church, as well as other buildings throughout Scotland.
The company’s beginnings date from 1852 when John Guthrie Sr. a master housepainter from Perthshire set up a painters and decorators firm. His sons John and William Guthrie trained at the Glasgow School of Art in the 1870s, before taking the reins of their retiring father’s business, now based in Glasgow. Under the name J & W Guthrie, they moved primarily into the design and manufacture of stained glass.
Along with the branch in Glasgow, the brothers opened another branch and showroom in London in the 1880s. Whilst living in London to oversee the business there, in 1888 John became a founder member of the Art Worker’s Guild. In the same year J & W Guthrie exhibited at the successful Glasgow International Exhibition, which led to contracts for work at the Glasgow Trades House, Royal Clyde Yacht Clubhouse at Dunoon, and even a church in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
In the 1897 William took sole charge of the company, as his brother John became the director of the applied and technical design studios at Glasgow School of Art, teaching techniques in mosaics, enamels, and more. The brothers had kept connections with the Glasgow School of Art, hiring students as designers (such as Glasgow boy painter James Guthrie – no relation) and funding prizes. Later, the firm manufactured designs by another famous former student, Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
Andrew Wells was soon brought in as a partner creating J & W Guthrie & Andrew Wells Ltd in 1898 (it wasn’t until the 1960s that the name was shortened to simply Guthrie & Wells). He had started his career at the young age of 15 as a japanner (lacquer worker) before working with the influential Glasgow born artist Daniel Cottier. Andrew emigrated to Australia where he worked for Lyon, Cottier & Co. the Sydney based decorative interior firm set up by Cottier for a decade, before returning to Glasgow.
Although the London branch was closed in 1903, the firm flourished in Glasgow with regular commissions for work. The business was later run by designers John A. Christie and Charles Paine. Whilst most of the designs in our archives date from a later period than that of the Guthrie brothers and Andrew Wells, their influence is still evident. The reputation they helped establish for the firm endured over the years.