Lyon & Turnbull
Lot 263
GLASGOW SCHOOL, ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN NISBET (1868-1951)ART NOUVEAU OAK DOOR, CIRCA 1900 with later central clear glass panel enclosed by carved stylised leaf apertures with coloured glass inserts above plain panels and fitted with opposed and embossed copper door plates226cm x 96cmLiterature: The Studio Yearbook, 1906, page 136 where similar doors are illustratedNote: The design of the present oak door and design of the preceding lot demonstrate similarities to doors designed by the architect John Nisbet for 'Kelmscott', built for Sir John McTaggart, a Glasgow property developer and builder, in 1900. The house is now a Grade B listed building and retains many of its original features, including an impressive installation of stained glass by Oscar Paterson who also designed stained glass for the doors. Nisbet, a long-time collaborator with Mactaggart, had been a student and classmate of Charles Rennie Mackintosh at Glasgow School of Art. For this commission he incorporated Scots Baronial and English Queen Anne elements in his design, and the house was decorated and furnished with pieces from the leading Arts & Crafts designers and artists of the day, including Frank Brangwyn, from whom Mactaggart is said to have commissioned two paintings. Nisbet was McTaggart's principal architect and together they were instrumental in the residential development of Glasgow's West End, where no less than 300 tenements were built by his company at the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century.Further evidence has come to light that this door (and by extension the door in lot 263) have been used in buildings designed by other Glasgow architects including the celebrated architect James Salmon (1874-1924) (or his firm Salmon, Son & Gillespie) in a house interior at 12 University Avenue, built around 1900 and now part of a run of general University of Glasgow buildings (see illustration of a door very similar to this lot in situ at University Avenue with original glass). Like 'Kelmscott' the building also was fitted out with stained glass by Oscar Paterson.
