Choose Topic Some Thoughts on the Individuality of Scottish Tools - Tony Murland (1997) Stewart Spiers or is it Speir? - by Ejon G. Scott (1996) A Pause For Thought, Stewart Spiers - Ken Roberts (1995) Some thoughts on the individuality of Scottish tools
It has long been apparent that Scottish made tools display a distinctive style, whether it be the classic cove fronted metal planes filled with walnut and with pierced heart and shield lever caps, or the elaborately decorated ebony spirit levels. This 'Scottish style' is evident, not only in craftsman-made tools, but in the manufactured ones as well.
In 1850 nearly half the population of Scotland was to be found in Glasgow and the Clyde Valley so it is not surprising that Glasgow was to be the centre of any new ideas in design. The appreciation design and production of objects are all shaped by the culture in which people live and only by first exploring the city of Glasgow can one appreciate the genesis and truly innovative aspects of the 'Scottish Style'. The sensory, emotional and aesthetic experiences created in Glasgow had a direct influence on the patterns and designs of its residents.
Glasgow in the mid-nineteenth century had been demonised in the popular imagination as some sort of "Dantean Hell" by authors like Thomas Carlyle who likened it to a "murky simmering Tophet of copperas fumes, cotton fuzz, gin-riot, wrath and toil, created by a Demon, governed by a Demon".
Glasgow was undergoing a massive period of growth fuelled by its Industrial Capitalisation. To be Scottish was to be European. It's Internationalism arising from Glasgow's trade and industry was amplified by cultural reverberations from ancient political alliances with Scandinavia and Europe. As one of the richest cities in the world, and as the centre for an immense network of trade and manufacture, Glasgow operated in an international, rather than a narrowly Scottish or British context. Against this back-drop it is hardly surprising that Glaswegian artists architects and designers did not seem to have the built-in resistance to continental or foreign influences that blinkered their English contemporaries. This climate allowed freedom of expression and is a major contributing factor to the development of a singularly 'Scottish Style'.
So Glasgow was a vibrant, dirty industrial city and yet cosmopolitan, all the ingredients for radical change in all branches of human endeavour political, scientific, intellectual, commercial and most importantly - design.
The city was polluted, cramped, with high building density. The city's labour force and slums were centrally, inescapably, located in the functional heat of the city. It was a depressing place. In these conditions design becomes a tool with which to combat. psychologically and socially, the forces of fragmentation and alienation that threatened to pull society apart.
Art, architecture and design in varying styles could be manipulated to reimpose meaning and coherence on the fluid conditions of city life, whilst also masking its unpalatable aspects.
Social anthropologists have pointed to a correlation between the growth of urban, industrialised societies and an increased sense of "inferiority" as well as a heightened awareness of the human body. In other words, by introducing style and design into the simplest of things, although not improving their function, it can combat the physical battles of day to day living, providing a material analogy for spiritual and sensual values. In the same way prisoners serving life-sentences will decorate their cells in order to preserve a purpose in their lives.
In the words of William Morris, "The pleasures of creating something which, without their individuality, would never have existed, was the greatest pleasure the world afforded".
"It is curious to know how most of the triumphs of art have been won in cities, and in cities too, whose life was oftentimes of the busiest and most complex description ... A civic life would seem to knock fire out of men, like the sparks evolved from the contact of flint and steel".
References
Stewart Spiers or is it Speir?
Recently a number of traditional mitre planes stamped SPEIR AYR or simply SPEIR have come onto the collector market. These planes appear in every way similar to those marked with the more traditional SPIER AYR. Is it possible that all of these planes, ie. those marked SPEIR, SPEIR AYR or SPEIRS AYR, were in fact made by the same person or firm?
Examination of early Ayr directories together with the 1841, 1851 and 1861 census suggests that this may in fact be the case. In both the 1841 and 1851 census and Macarter's Directory for 1830 the family is listed as Speir. If this spelling occurred in just one list one could account for it as it as a 'typo' on the part of the census taker or Macarten. However the fact that it was used more than once suggests that it was one of the ways the family spelled their names 'til at least 1851!
Why and when the Spiers spelling was chosen over Speir is not at all clear. What seems clear is that planes marked Speir were in all probability made by Stewart Spiers, his father William or his American born nephew William Spier. Some of the planes are clearly early and some clearly late, ie. the infill is screwed in place rather than pinned in place or vice versa. Consequently, it is possible that any one of them could have made these planes that are stamped Speir. However given that the nephew William was born in America it seems quite likely that he would maintain the Speir spelling even if Stewart and his mother settled on Spiers. This would suggest that he, rather than Stewart, was the maker of at least the later 'superior' planes.
A Pause For Thought, Stewart Spiers
For what reason are the designs of the metal dovetailed line of planes made by THOMAS NORRIS of London so similar to those made by STEWART SPIERS of Ayre Scotland? Did the former copy those of the latter? Is it possible that THOMAS NORRIS when a young lad first observed Spiers' planes at the London Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851 and admired their graceful design? In any event, it cannot be denied that STEWART SPIERS made such planes at least twenty years previous to THOMAS NORRIS.
In this writer's opinion, if the NORRIS plane products are superior to those of SPIERS, which is indeed questionable, it was principally due to the advancement in machining technology in the early twentieth century.
Ken Roberts is the author and publisher of "Some 19th Century English Woodworking Tools".
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