1 10 2 https://www.artisansinscotland.shca.ed.ac.uk/files/original/3057981274521fcc57d4d7fcbee74c83.jpg 95b2e0fca56040aa7bfd18aba746bf3b Exhibition Item Image copyright Tain and District Museum's Trust Item Location Tain and District Museum Description This photograph shows the Interior of Danny Thompson's cabinet makers workshop in Upper King Street, Tain in Ross-shire. It shows six men, a typical workshop size, all wearing white aprons, with the proprietor stood in the center. The figure in the background on the left appears to be a teenage apprentice. The workshop is a simple, single-story wooden building. Another view taken from outside about ten years later shows it adjoining a windowed building that acted as a showroom. The firm was founded by Danny Thompson, a local man, in the 1880s, but was sold to William Fraser, who appears on the left of the photograph, in the early twentieth century. Fraser retained the original name and D. Thompson & Co. continued in existence through several ownerships to 1994. A number of partly finished objects can be identified in the photograph, including picture and mirror frames, a carved chair back and hall-stand or mirror back. The local museum in Tain has a carved chair attributed to Danny Thompson that is very similar to the one displayed here. Upholstered cushions and textiles can be seen on the left. Danny Thompson, the master craftsman and proprietor, is stood behind a lady’s davenport writing desk, which was a complex and expensive piece of furniture made for elite customers. These items have been arranged in the image for narrative effect and to show the range of products made. It is unlikely that tasks like upholstery work were normally undertaken in such a dusty environment as is evident here. To the rear of the workshop, fixed to the roof, is a wheel with a mechanized belt-drive, for running a sawing or turning machine and there are numerous hand tools in racks on the wall. Wood is stored above in the rafters and prints and designs are pasted onto the walls and ceiling. In common with most local workshops of this type, Thompson also made coffins, though none are visible in this image and he fitted out house interiors with wood paneling and chimney pieces. One of his most notable commissions was Morangie House (now a hotel) on the outskirts of Tain, an eight-bedroom mansion designed by architect Andrew Maitland of Keith in Banffshire for the wealthy widow of a local farmer, on which he and his men worked extensively in 1902-3. The image here was the work of William Smith, a bookseller, newsagent and photographer with premises in Tain’s High Street from the early 1850s to his death in 1906. He took many photographs of local scenes and people including tradesmen in their places of work and servants connected with some of the great houses nearby such as Balnagown Castle, home of the Ross family. He also published a series of colour-tinted photographic postcards for tourists showing notable Tain buildings and street scenes. He erected a special glasshouse to the rear of his shop for his successful studio portrait business. As a thriving town in a prosperous north-east farming district Tain provided constant business for craftsmen like Danny Thompson, who made goods in the latest fashion according to demand and also furnished a steady stream of customers for William Smith. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Danny Thompson’s Cabinet Makers Workshop, Tain, ca. 1890 apprentices cabinet maker design furniture Highlands photographers portraits Tain textiles tools tourist industry wood https://www.artisansinscotland.shca.ed.ac.uk/files/original/b95040051b68e0e642a79d9f8198d050.jpg 0c7fa3c104cd4509116000a230569190 Exhibition Item Category Buildings Image copyright Tain and District Museums Trust Item Location Tain and District Museum Description <p>This photograph taken by William Smith shows workman carrying out repairs or alterations to the exterior of Balnagown Castle, Kildary, near Tain.  Artisans were employed to build new buildings in the nineteenth-century but their skills were also needed to repair and maintain Scotland’s historic structures. The hand-tools in this photograph suggest that the men were slaters or carpenters, both were skilled trades taught through the nineteenth-century apprenticeship system. The men’s ages appear to range from twenty to forty. The man standing at the highest point, though not the most senior in years, was likely the foreman, his status indicated by his starched white collar. Almost all the workmen wear waistcoats and cloth caps, the standard form of dress for skilled manual workers at the time. Some estates employed their own carpenters and road-menders but large-scale building works were most often contracted out to local companies so it wasn't unusual for ‘Notices to Builders’ to be posted in Scottish newspapers advertising for a single firm or contractor to coordinate the work of all the masons, carpenters and slaters required to complete a specific building.</p> <p>Balnagown Castle is the historic home of the Clan Ross chieftains located in the Ross and Cromarty region of the Highlands. The building originates from the thirteenth century though by the time these workmen were employed it had been renovated and expanded by several owners.  The rectangular ground plan of the building dates from the 1760s but the Castle was further developed from the mid-nineteenth century. Charles Henry Augustus Frederick Lockhart Ross (1872-1842) was an eccentric character and the inventor of the Ross Rifle.  He was the owner of Balnagown in the 1880s and so the likely commissioner of these workmen.</p> <p>William Smith (1824-1906), bookseller, newsagent and photographer had premises in Tain’s High Street from the early 1850s to his death in 1906. Smith’s photographs capture the spectrum of Victorian society featuring subjects as varied as portraits of Tain characters, visiting royalty, and images of craftsmen working outdoors or in their workshops. How Smith took this photograph of a very high turret is unknown though it’s possible he positioned his camera on a lower level of scaffolding. The Balnagown workmen display great confidence in the wooden scaffold that was probably fixed by their own hands. Yet, the dangers of working with heavy materials in high and exposed conditions such as this too often led to accidents and fatalities. An 1881 edition of <em>The Dundee Courier and Argus</em> (17 February) recorded how two slaters fell to their deaths whilst working on the new University of Edinburgh buildings. </p> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Workmen at Balnagown Castle, 1880s builders carpenters Highlands photographers slaters Tain