Details

Object type

design for menu card

Artist/Maker

Frances Macdonald maker

Culture/School

Glasgow Style

Place Associated

Scotland, Glasgow, Kelvingrove Park (place associated)

Date

1911

Materials

watercolour, pencil, vellum

Dimensions

open 210 mm x 310 mm

Description

Menu card design for Miss Cranston's The Red Lion Cafe at The Scottish Exhibition of National History, Art and Industry in 1911. Pencil and watercolour on vellum, designed and executed by Frances MacDonald MacNair.

Miss Cranston ran two cafes at the 1911 Exhibition of Scottish National History, Art and Industry – the third great Glasgow exhibition to be held in Kelvingrove Park. Each had a title with a Scottish theme – “The White Cockade” and “The Red Lion” – and a menu card designed by one of the Macdonald sisters. These cards are fascinating not just for their design, but for the information they provide about Cranston’s suppliers, her bakery (she ran her own cake supplier), and the food and drink she served there.

Frances’ design for The Red Lion menu card features two Scottish emblems: the red lion rampant – the Royal Standard of Scotland – and the thistle, the country’s national flower. The Jacobites – supporters of the deposed (in 1688) and exiled Catholic Stuart king, James VII of Scotland/II of England – are the subject of Margaret’s card for The White Cockade (E.2000.13.1). A stylised white cockade – the white ribbon of the Jacobite’s cause – appears in the square logo on the left-hand outer fold of the card and on the bodice of the young woman on the menu cover. A hint of chequered tartan in red, black, and green can be seen to the left of her shoulder, referencing Highland dress. Above, the white grid lines that forms the woman’s hair, spaced by the squares in the margin, alludes to the weaving process – the lines of the warp and weft.

Credit Line/Donor

Purchased with grant aid from Art Fund, National Fund for Acquisitions and Friends of Glasgow Museums

ID Number

E.2007.1

Location

In storage