William Meikle & Son

William Meikle & Sons ('William Meikle' until c. 1870; '& Son' c. 1871–6), were glaziers and stained glass designers in Glasgow. The business was founded in 1838 by William Meikle Senior (c. 1818–1900). 1 The firm was initially a wholesale glass merchants and glaziers, but its history has frequently been subject to much confusion and the omission of various partners. Meikle's two sons, former shipping-clerk William Tait Meikle (1841–1935) and James Harvie Meikle (1842–1925), newly returned from Canada, joined the business in the late 1860s and early 1870s, respectively. 2 The company title duly changed to '& Sons'. 3 Meikle Senior retired in June 1879, moving to Dunoon, and his sons continued business at 21 Wellington Street. 4

The firm undertook the glazier work at various buildings in the 1880s, including the Commercial Bank, Laurieston (1884), Campbhill School, Paisley (1886), and Stockwell Free Church, Pollokshields (1887). 5 Meikle & Sons began advertising as glass stainers in 1886, 'embossers, stainers and benders, agents for silvered and polished plate-glass manufacturers'. 6 Glass historian Michael Donnelly has noted that William Tait Meikle's training in glass design was probably under Stephen Adam, and was conservative in style. 7 The company contributed stained glass panels to architect John Gordon's 'completely-furnished dining-room', for exhibitors A. Gardner & Son, T. Lawrie & Son, and others, at the Glasgow International Exhibition in 1888. 8 In 1892, they recruited artist-decorators John (not Johnathon) Edward Charles Carr (b. Dumbarton, 1867), followed in 1895 by John Tytler Stewart (1858–1930) from design studios of Denny's shipbuilders, Dumbarton. 9

The Meikle brothers each had sons called William who became glass artists, and the various 'William Meikles' have sometimes been conflated. To distinguish themselves, William Tait Meikle's son became known as William Meikle Junior (1866–1939), 10 whereas James Harvie Meikle's Canadian-born son became William Meikle Tertius, or 'the third' (1870–1953). 11 James left the company in December 1894, and joined Craig, Meikle & Co., a short-lived glass merchants, of which his wife and son were sole partners. 12 He later faced serious financial difficulties with a stone-cleaning 'by sand-blast' venture, 13 along with his equally-indebted son, who was trading as 'Tertius Meikle' in Washington Street, Glasgow. 14 The pair subsequently moved to Wandsworth by early 1901. 15 Another son, Joseph A. Meikle (1876–1942) became an architect in London, but James and his wife joined 'Meikle Tertius' in Toronto in 1924. 16

Following a visit to leading London designers Morris & Co., Walter Crane and Sir Edward Burne Jones, designers Carr and Stewart held a joint exhibition at Meikle's showroom in 1896, receiving enthusiastic reviews in journals Quiz and The Artist. 17 Although Carr moved South, Stewart became Meikle's chief designer, and developed the technically-innovative and durable 'cameo process' which eliminated the need for much repetitive painting. 18 Subsequent studio designers included John Stark Melville, Charles Edward Stuart and Andrew Rigby Gray. 19 During the 1900s, the firm received numerous large commissions from housebuilders for abstract floral domestic panels, suitable for inserting in the hallways and bay windows of upmarket terraces in the affluent West End of Glasgow. 20

Among the firm's ecclesiastical and other contracts during this period were the Scottish Legal Life Building, Virginia Street, Glasgow (1889), the Sir James Anderson Window in St Mary's, Dumfries (1896), and the Mrs Douglas Baynes Memorial Window, Cupar (1895–6, apparently designed by John Maclaren, architect). 21 The heads of the figures in the Queen Victoria Window, Bo'ness (1903) 'were cut and modelled ... in pure glass ... a mosaic', with no surface painting, 'the first window ever produced in this manner'. 22 Their first 'cameo process' window in Edinburgh was the 1906 Rev. Cochrane Memorial in Pleasance Free Church. 23 This was followed by the Rev. Balderston Window, at Overton, West Kilbride (1907–8), the Provost Welsh Window, Bo'ness (1907–8), a staircase window at Thankerton for Sir Nathaniel Dunlop, and the Hastie Window, Wanlockhead (1911). 24 Later projects included leaded glass for the Mitchell Library and Alhambra Theatre, Glasgow (1911), heraldic glazing and a dome for Freemason's Hall, Edinburgh (1912), and the proposed restoration of Paisley Abbey in 1913. 25

In 1908, William Tait Meikle and his two co-partners, William Meikle Junior, and younger son Andrew Currie Meikle (1868–1933) faced bankruptcy, but managed to pay off their creditors by 1910. 26 The firm's last entry in local directories, managed by Andrew Balfour Meikle, was in 1935, the year of William Tait Meikle's death, aged 93. 27