Painting on masthead RFHS web ?

[Alan SHARP]

Greetings Lesley.

Sorry if your partner has taken offence, I was just reporting the various opinions expressed to my quest for identification/dating of what appears to be a landscape painting. I have no great knowledge of the topography of the environs of Glasgow as it is today, yet alone some 200 years ago, to be making any serious calls myself, and lacking Alan's [currie] search engine skills, have yet to find a site with information about old landscape paintings etc to be having much in put myself, other than being amazed about the quantity of dredging done along the Clyde’s navigable ways.

Today, here in New Zealand, the resource consent process needed before one bucket of harbour floor can be lifted, and then again, disposed of, can take years of legal wrangling.

Alan SHARP.

[LesleyB]

No offence taken Alan.

I have no great knowledge of the topography of the environs of Glasgow as it is today, yet alone some 200 years ago, to be making any serious calls myself

Glasgow is in Lanarkshire.

We're certain the painting shows Paisley (in Renfrewshire) from the Hammills, where there is now a road called Seedhill.
Not only are the falls in the right position, but the relative postion of the bridge (the old bridge appears to be in a similar position to the modern one), but also the older map posted by Hibee would appear to even have churches in reasonable positions for the spires in the painting.
I'd put money on it if I were a betting person!

Also see
http://urbanglasgow.co.uk/archive/paisl ... t_488.html

Best wishes
Lesley

[Alan SHARP]

Bingo All !

Thanks for persevering. Took a while for the photo to dial-up down load, but the perspective is so good you can nearly overlay the landscape, and the photo from all those years later. As far as I'm concerned the location is proven, now to find out more about the painting/print.

Alan SHARP.

PS. Re Renfrew/Lanarkshire. The old parish maps, that I have titled the ENVIRONS OF GLASGOW, have Cathcart divided by the White Cart boundary and only some 3 to 4 miles from the centre of Glasgow. Not knowing the defines of the NECROPOLIS, Environs of, has been the terminology that I have tended to use. Glasgow grew from 70,000 to some 200,000 people, in the period that I'm interested in, and I believe it is now, like our greater Auckland City, where it takes more than half an hours driving, to cross through it.

[Alan SHARP]

Now we have a name, we have another photo of the Old Paisley Bridge,

http://www.mediastorehouse.com/pictures ... prints.htm

Alan SHARP

[AndrewP]

Now we have a name, we have another photo of the Old Paisley Bridge,

http://www.mediastorehouse.com/pictures ... prints.htm

Alan SHARP

I couldn't get the link above to work (could be an issue with my work's firewall). If it fails for you, try the following link instead.

http://www.mediastorehouse.com/dmcs_sea ... ley+bridge

All the best,

AndrewP

[Alan SHARP]

I couldn't get the link above to work (could be an issue with my work's firewall). If it fails for you, try the following link instead.

http://www.mediastorehouse.com/dmcs_sea ... ley+bridge

All the best,

AndrewP

Thanks Andrew. I'm new to, trying to, copy and paste a link, and I do not always get it right. Alan SHARP.

[Alan SHARP]

I have unsuccessfully tried to find a schedual of landscape painter William STEWART'S works, [1823-1906] because for a period he was teaching at the Paisley School of Design. Unfortunately there were/are many William STEWARTS noted for their paintings right up to this present day. Alan SHARP.

[Currie]

Hello Alan,

The RFHS are using the internet to offer stuff for sale, they should have a working email address. You could give them another try. Failing that, or maybe better still, you could try the Paisley Museum and Art Gallery. They should know about the painting. http://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/ilwwcm/p ... collection Maybe even the Paisley Central Library http://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/ilwwcm/p ... ryHomePage

Here’s a description of the bridges at Paisley from the Statistical Account of 1837.
“One of these is the Seedhill Bridge, said to have been built of stones obtained from the ruins of part of the Abbey building, and which is near the Seedhill Craigs, once a famous salmon leap …….”
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=f6I ... J&pg=PA277

Here’s another picture of the Seedhill Bridge, (5th row from the bottom) similarly unnecessarily and excessively mutilated by a watermark.
http://www.paisleyphotographs.com/Galle ... 443%29.htm

Here’s some more, from the Glasgow Herald, Saturday, October 7, 1882.

PAISLEY OLD BRIDGE.
LAYING MEMORIAL STONE.
The memorial-stone of the addition to the Old Bridge over the Cart was laid yesterday by Provost Mackean in presence of the Magistrates, Town Council, and a number of spectators. The Old Bridge connects the old and the new town by way of High Street and Smithhills Street, close by the George A. Clark Town Hall, with which the additions and improvements are designed to harmonise in style of architecture, while the cost of the work is expected to reach £4000. The time when the first bridge was erected on the present site is unknown, but tradition fixes the date in the twelfth century. In that period of ecclesiastical supremacy the bridge was designed, it is said, as an approach to the Paisley Monastery, and for the convenience of the Abbot and his attendants when visiting the chapels and lands of the Abbey in the counties of Renfrew and Ayr. Till 1760 this was the only means of communication between the Paisley banks of the Cart, but in that year the Sneddon Bridge was erected, followed in 1763 by the Seedhills Bridge, both of which are now known in their recently improved condition as the Abercorn and Abbey Bridges respectively. In 1782 the earliest of the local bridges was taken down, and the bridge which is now the subject of additions and improvements was then erected at a cost of £779 5s 11½d. Cheap though the cost was as compared with that of the present day the workmanship has been found to be so excellent as to require not reconstruction but additions and improvements only. The bridge will be opened, it is expected, next year, and that event will witness the completion of the improvements on the burgh bridges permitted by the Paisley Improvement Act, 1877.

All the best,
Alan

[Alan SHARP]

Many thanks Alan.

Your ability with search engines is way ahead of mine. I've played with old & antique; painting & original print; Paisley Bridge/s, plus spent many hours scrolling through results on several Glasgow and Renfrew Library searches. I've found some very interesting facts about the area, but not all of the suggestions above. Never thought to look at the Paisley references in the Statistical Accounts, though I have studied both of them in detail, for some of the villages my folks came from, and referred to them on previous TS posts.

I will study your suggestions above, in detail, the next time I have access to broadband.

Alan SHARP.

PS: Just re-tried emailing the email address, given for service on the site. The only one I could find, and it has bounced straight back.
Quote;
<webmaster.rfhs@ntlworld.com>: host aspmx.l.google.com[72.14.213.27] said: 550
5.2.1 The email account that you tried to reach is disabled.
f5si13157984wfo.85 (in reply to RCPT TO command)
End Quote;
Quite obvious that Andrew does not belong to the RFHS. Postal address accompanied all contact forms.

[Alan SHARP]

Greetings Alan [currie]

This very prompt reply was received today.

QOUTE:
Dear Mr Sharp

Thank you for your enquiry relating to the illustration on the letterhead of the Renfrew Family History Society, a copy of which you were kind enough to attach to your email.

I believe that a copy of this coloured print came into the Paisley Central Library or Museum collections a few years ago, so I really should be able to provide you with details of the artist and date etc, but I am afraid that I will have to check these for you.

What I am able to tell you, however, is that it a print showing the Abbey Bridge of Paisley, rather than the old Bridge, and an educated guess would say that the period portrayed (probably contemporary with the time when it was printed) would be c1800-1820.

The artist portrays the scene from the east bank of the River (White) Cart, with the "Hammills" (natural falls between rocky outcrops on the river) on the left, and, from left to right, mill buildings at Seedhill; a bleaching green; what I take to be the High Church and Tolbooth Steeples in the far distance; Abbey Bridge; and the New Town of Paisley on the east bank of the river, with the Abbey behind it.

This might all seem very clever of me, but I do have the benefit of a contemporary map of Paisley sitting here beside my desk !

I hope that this information is of help. ... ... ... ... ...

Please let me know if I can help in any other way.

Yours sincerely
David Roberts
Curator of History
Paisley Museum
END QUOTE.

Alan SHARP.