Name/TitleMaryhill Burgh Halls Panel: The Calico Printers
About this objectPrint on wood panel: originally labelled 'The Calico Printers', this reproduction of a stained glass panel by Stephen Adam is now believed to depict women employed in dying or fulling (shrinking) the cloth, an earlier stage in calico production than block printing, which was long-apprenticed male-only work. See Subject and Association Description for more details.
Place MadeScotland, Glasgow
Medium and MaterialsOrganic, wood
MeasurementsH: 272 x W: 272 x D: 14 mm
Subject and Association Keywordswomen's work & labour
Subject and Association Keywordstextile industry
Subject and Association Descriptionhttps://www.maryhillburghhalls.org.uk/panels:
Maryhill Burgh Halls contained twenty stained glass panels created by the studio of Adam and Small. This studio was set up in Glasgow by Stephen Adam in 1870 and the company produced possibly the most significant examples of Scottish stained glass for the next four decades, until Adam's death in 1910. The contribution of Adam's work at that time cannot be underestimated. He is recognised as an internationally important artist in the field of stained glass design and production.
Stephen Adam was born near Edinburgh in 1847 and in 1862 was apprenticed to James Ballantine of Edinburgh, at that time the leading firm working in stained glass in Scotland. They were the leading company in the revival of the craft in Scotland in the latter half of the 19th century.
The realism of the portrayals of the industries and trades in the Maryhill Windows is in marked contrast to Adam’s other stained glass treatments of similar subjects. His windows for Glasgow City Chambers (1882-90) include depictions of workmen, but these are portrayed in classical clothing and poses: at Aberdeen Trinity Hall (1893), the figures are shown in Biblical and medieval settings; and at the Clyde Navigation Trust Building (1905-08) the industries are represented by classical nymphs or goddesses and the workmen and traders at the docks in late-medieval/Renaissance clothes. Only at Maryhill were real people depicted as they really were, in their everyday working clothes.
The stained glass was removed from the building in 1963, and has been in the care of Glasgow Museums ever since. The refurbishment and re-opening of the building in 2012 has allowed 11 of the original panels to be returned to their original location in the Main Hall for display, alongside ten modern Windows of Today.
THE CALICO PRINTERS
Kelvindale Mills was built by John Barr at Bantaskin Street in The Butney c.1830, by the River Kelvin. It was burned down in 1841 and rebuilt, but had been demolished by 1895 when Thomson wrote his Memories of Maryhill. Adam must have caught the works just before it closed in the late 1870s. The textile industry was the main source of employment for women of the time. The women shown above are pre-treating cloth in a container with a water supply. They may be fulling (pre-shrinking) or dying the cloth. They stand on duckboards, and are wearing clogs, since the factory floor would be constantly sopping wet. Two wear headsquares as protective clothing, as they turn over the cloth with their poles.
Named CollectionGlasgow Women's Library
Object TypePrint
Object numberGWL-2017-10-2
Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved