The citizens of Glasgow have loved to collect objets d’art, from the days of the Tobacco Lords whose wealth allowed the amassing of fabulous collections to the tenement dweller with a parlour filled with heirlooms and artefacts.

      McTear’s Salerooms have witnessed art and antiques changing hands for the past one hundred and sixty years.  It was here that young William Burrell is said to have bought his first painting – only to resell it immediately because he was unable to pay for it.

     Auction rooms hold a fascination for the collectors of the rare and unusual. This is the story of Robert. McTear & Co., Glasgow’s longest established Auctioneers.....

 

Almost two hundred years ago, the Reverend James McTear travelled from his native Ireland to Glasgow to begin a new life.  Glasgow was earning the reputation of Second City of the Empire against a background of great commercial and industrial activity.  Horse drawn carriages, arriving daily at the Saracen’s Head and Black Bull Inns, carried travellers to the city in search of fortune.

     James McTear settled in Calton in the heart of Glasgow’s East End.  He married a local girl and they had four boys and one girl.  Two of the sons studied medicine, becoming surgeons, a third trained as an engraver and the fourth was Robert McTear.

     Robert McTear, born in 1818, grew up to be a handsome, romantic-looking youth.  With his confidence and fluent manner he was well-suited to a career as an auctioneer.  He began work in the office of Barclay & Skirving, the well-known auctioneers in the Trongate.   After Barclay & Skirving moved west to Buchanan Street, Robert left their employ, having gained nine years’ experience in valuation work and many hours of selling from the rostrum.

     Now an experienced auctioneer, Robert set up in business as Auctioneers, Valuators and House Furnishers, together with a fellow auctioneer, Mr Donald Kempt.   Their business, known as McTear & Kempt, opened late in 1842 at 97 Argyle Street, the site later to become Anderson’s Royal Polytechnic warehouse and then Lewis’s store.

     Robert lived with his father, brothers and sister in the next courtyard to the new business.   When Robert married in the 1850’s, he moved to Laurieston, south of the Clyde.

     Robert soon became chief partner in McTear & Kempt, and the company’s advertisement, appearing on the front pages of the Glasgow Herald, encouraged people to view their “varied and unrivalled” display of goods.   In 1857 the firm moved to The Glasgow Salerooms  at 21 Gordon Street. 

 

The partnership of McTear & Kempt was dissolved in 1863, and Robert McTear, after twenty years of responsibility for the fortunes of the partnership, moved on his own to the spacious St Mary’s hall, Renfield Street.   The auction rooms and offices in St Mary’s Hall were “completely refurbished for his purpose”, soon becoming a landmark in Renfield Street.   From the weekly journal, The Bailie, in 1875: 

     "Season after  season St Mary’s Hall, Renfield Street has been known to be one of the most

      pleasant lounges in Glasgow.  It was in St Mary’s Hall that Holman Hunt’s ‘Isabella’

     was exhibited.   Here our local ‘Christie’ pitched his tent" 

     A visit to McTear’s auction rooms was always well rewarded, with exhibits ranging from Fine Art, antique furniture, rare books and all kinds of movable property.   Additional sales of produce and “stocks in trade” kept the public passing through their doors year after year.

     As well as taking charge of the business Robert found time for many other pursuits.   Like his father, he had liberal interests and was sympathetic towards the democratic movements on the continent.   The well-known socialists Louis Blanc and Karl Blind  became the guests of Robert when they visited the city.  He began corresponding with the Italian revolutionary Garibaldi who became a life-long friend.

     In 1864 Robert and his wife set out on a grand Continental Tour and during the voyage, visited Garibaldi at his home on the Island of Caprera.   Robert kept a journal of the tour, which was serialized in the Glasgow Herald during the summer of 1865.   Entitled, Notes on a Continental  Tour and a Visit to Caprera by a Glasgow Gentleman, the journal was later printed and bound into a small book.

     Robert, described in The Bailie as “active, bustling, with plenty of ambition and a desire to know and be known”, had great energy and personality which led to many friendships with well-known figures of the day.   Once, whilst Robert was talking with an actor friend, the subject turned to the great popularity of Charles Dickens.   During his lifetime Dickens was famous for giving dramatic readings from his novels.   Robert wrote to him, offering £600 for twelve readings in Scotland.

     Dickens accepted and came to Glasgow, agreeing to give readings in the City Hall, Candleriggs.   For weeks beforehand advertisements appeared on the front pages of the Glasgow Herald.   The performances created a storm: two rows of policemen kept the crowds back from the main doors.   Inside the City Hall women fainted in the aisles and cried over the saddest passages such as The Death of Little Nell.

From The Glasgow Herald: 

MR .   CHARLES DICKENS

WILL READ, IN THE

CITY HALL

THIS EVENING (WEDNESDAY)

HIS CHIMES

 

     Along with his interest in literature Robert avidly followed the events of the time, and in 1848 was chosen as editor of a small radical periodical, Glasgow Punch. 

     Robert helped found The Glasgow Musical Association, which later became The Choral Union.   He was treasurer of the Association and also helped in fundraising to install the great organ in the City Hall, Candleriggs.   Aided by his years of experience as an auctioneer, Robert had a great knowledge and love of art, and bought paintings for his own collection.   Twice, a portrait of his father, the Rev. James McTear, was lent for major art exhibitions in the city.

     By the 1870’s Robert once again was considering moving, and he secured the lease of premises in North Court, forming part of the St. George’s Buildings.   Three galleries were specially erected for this purpose and in 1874 Robert opened his Royal Exchange Salerooms -  where the business remained for more than one hundred years.

     Two years after the successful move, in 1876, aged fifty-eight, Robert died at his Charing Cross home.   He had been an outstanding example of the many-talented Victorians, his interests spanning the arts, commerce and politics.   Well-known for his enterprise and the vigour with which he pursued his ambitions, he made a lasting contribution to Glasgow.

The firm’s chief assistant, John Laird, together with Andrew McTear, the late Robert McTear’s brother, now formed a new partnership which was to last seven years.   Robert McTear had been in the process of selling the business to John, in 1876.

     John, born in 1848 at Falkirk, came to Glasgow as a young boy and after his education at the Gorbals Youth School, joined McTear’s at the age of fifteen.   By diligent application he rose until he had sole management of the business some years before his employer’s death, and continued to head the firm until 1917.

     As a young man John was an enthusiastic shorthand writer and in 1869, founded the Glasgow Shorthand Writers Association.   Influenced by Robert McTear, he became a staunch Liberal politician and held many positions in Liberal clubs and councils.

     John was greatly interested in literature and science, and was one of the chief forces behind the popular Glasgow Science Lectures held at the University.   He would spend summers with his family, in Iona, enjoying quiet hours of deep-sea fishing.

 

In 1878 John Carss Gulliland joined the company, and for the next forty years the collaboration of the two Johns charecterised the successful Auctioneers.   The two men were excellently matched: whilst Laird was meticulous and serious, the wit of John Gulliland when on the rostrum, always kept his audience in good spirits.

     John Gulliland was born in 1847 in the Gorbals.   He joined McTear’s as a junior partner and soon became one of the most well-known men in the auctioneering field.   With his merry sense of humour he earned the designation the most versatile auctioneer north of the Border.

     At the turn of the century the senior partner, John Laird, was elected a Justice of the Peace for Glasgow.   The two partners both had sons:   Liet-Colonel James Laird, D.S.O., and William Gulliland,  who were involved in the company in different capacities. 

 

As McTear’s entered the twentieth century, the Royal Exchange Sale Rooms  continued to mirror the shifting patterns in taste and fashion.   In Victorian times it was the custom for houses to be crammed full of artefacts.   Massive dark furniture frequently stretched from wall to wall, filling every available space in drawing-room or parlour.

     During this time of ostentation, silver or even gold dinner services were much sought after in the homes of the well-to-do.   In the best-appointed tenement houses there were brightly polished brass fittings in the form of doorbells, finger-plates and letter-boxes.

     After the First World War and through the years of the Depression, second-hand goods and furniture were often all people could afford.   Prices remained high as customers such as the newly wed, furnished their apartments with items acquired at auction, or old furniture handed on to them by relatives.

     One auction conducted by McTear’s which surpassed all expectations of the time, was when the property of Paisley Cotton thread heiress, Miss Lillian Coats, came up for sale.

     Private buyers as well as dealers, from all over the country, attended the sale held at Fornethy House, Glenisla in Perthshire.   The top price of £600 – a record for the two days of the sale – was paid by a well-known London dealer, Mr de Haan, for a Hepplewhite satinwood inlaid bookcase, which had earlier belonged to Queen Charlotte.

 

     At around the time John Laird and John Gulliland retired from the company, two men began their careers in McTear’s and were to remain with the firm until the 1960’s.

     The first was Archibald Smith, who joined the business in 1916 and who later became a Senior Partner.   In 1916 John Laird was still the senior partner, providing a link back to the founder, Robert McTear.

     Archibald was associated with the business for almost half a century, spanning two World Wars.   He became extremely well-known as an auctioneer of furniture and works of art.

Winning a reputation as a fine valuer, he was associated with many important sales throughout his career.   As well as running the business, Archibald was a Deacon of the Bonnetmakers and Dyers of Glasgow, an association which still meets regularly in the splendid Trades House in Glassford Street.   Archibald’s knowledge of the poetry of Burns led to his being elected president of the Sandyford Burns Club.   also a keen sportsman, he was at one time a President of the Scottish Junior Football Association.

     Two years after Archibald Smith, Cuthbert N. Campbell  began his career with McTears, in 1918. Cuthbert was engaged by John Gulliland’s son, William, who was well-known at the time for being a Queen’s Park and Scotland international footballer player. 

 

     As well as being an auctioneer Cuthbert undertook valuations, mainly of better class dwellings and occasionally of a Scottish castle.   As a valuer he also handled many Blitz claims during the war.

     After fifty years with the company, and through great social and business changes, Cuthbert retired as Senior Partner in July 1968.  Much was owed to his work and efforts.   His main interest had been in Scottish silver, a field which he felt lent itself particularly to the collector because of its quality and variety.

     The present Director of the business, Brian Clements, joined the firm in 1987 as an auction sales clerk. The long service of many of McTear’s employees has given an extra quality of tradition  which is the hallmark of long-established companies.

 

For the past one and a half centuries, the business community, dealers and the general public, whether as sellers or attending buyers at McTear’s, have witnessed an unending variety of interesting and unusual items being sold.   The attraction may be that fine piece of jewellery, carvings in jade and ivory, porcelain from Europe and the Orient, paintings of quality or the long-sought-after collectable found amongst the bric-a-brac.

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