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MX.05 Interiors for Dunglass Castle, Bowling, Dunbartonshire

Address: Bowling G60 5BQ
Date: 1900
Client: Charles Macdonald
Authorship:

(Mackintosh)

Mackintosh designed drawing-room and bedroom furniture and fittings for Glasgow solicitor Charles Macdonald, brother of Margaret Macdonald, for his home in Bowling, 12 km W. of Glasgow. Dunglass Castle is picturesquely sited on the N. bank of the river Clyde. Macdonald took over the lease of the house from Talwin Morris and moved there during 1899. 1 The work appears to have been a private commission as there are no related entries in the job books or cash book of John Honeyman & Keppie.

The furniture and fittings included a white-painted fireplace; a corner settle with fabric covering decorated by one or both of the Macdonald sisters; a white-painted bookcase with leaded glass doors; and ebonised or dark-stained, four-poster bed, dressing table and wash stand. The fireplace, bookcase and bed are closely related to corrpesonding items Mackintosh designed for his flat at 120 Mains Street, in the first half of 1900. The Dunglass Castle furniture must date from around the same time: one of the drawings for the bookcase is dated June 1900; the other surviving drawings are undated. 2 The property is owned by Esso Petroleum Co. Ltd, and is currently on the Buildings at Risk Register (2014).

A report on the condition of Dunglass Castle was produced as part of the Mackintosh Buildings Survey, led by the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society and carried out between 2015 and 2016. 3

Authorship: The furniture is known from drawings by Mackintosh. 4

Status: Derelict; some items of furniture in the collection of the National Museums of Scotland; the settle fabric is in The Hunterian

Current name: Dunglass Castle

Current use: Vacant (2014)

Listing category: B (Listed as 'Dunglass Castle')

Historic Scotland/HB Number: 14399

RCAHMS Site Number: NS47SW 7

Grid Reference: NS 43745 73537

Notes:

1: Thomas Howarth, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Modern Movement, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 2nd edn, 1977, p. 23; Glasgow Post Office Directory, 1899–1900, p. 363.

2: The Hunterian, University of Glasgow: GLAHA 41783.

3: A copy of the report (MBS25) is held by the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society, Mackintosh Queen's Cross, 870 Garscube Road, Glasgow G20 7EL. The Mackintosh Buildings Survey was funded by The Monument Trust.

4: The Hunterian, University of Glasgow: GLAHA 41720; GLAHA 41779; GLAHA 41780; GLAHA 41781; GLAHA 41782; GLAHA 41783; GLAHA 41784.

'Mackintosh Architecture' led by The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council; with additional support from The Monument Trust, The Pilgrim Trust, and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art; and collaborative input from Historic Scotland and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.