Bruce Hamilton Furniture Makers

Bruce Hamilton is the third generation of his family to work in the timber trade and has almost forty years' experience in the furniture industry. He served an apprenticeship as a chair maker and was awarded top student in his final year at college. Bruce Hamilton Furniture Makers was established in the spring of 1991, initially operating from a workshop in Bruce Hamilton's father's double garage. In 2014, the company relocated to a workshop in Anniesland, in the West End of Glasgow. Bruce Hamilton specialises in reproducing Charles Rennie Mackintosh furniture and offers a bespoke furniture service, hand crafting individual pieces made to order.

He has worked with commercial and private clients all over the world, including New York, London, throughout Europe and Australia. He has undertaken prestigious Mackintosh commissions such as The House for an Art Lover, The Glasgow School of Art, Mackintosh at the Willow Tearooms and the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society. In 1994, he was commissioned to make dining room furniture for the House for an Art Lover and furniture for The Willow Tea Rooms. He made choir stalls for Paisley Abbey, replacement Director's Room and Board Room chairs for the Glasgow School of Art, and the Communion Table for the Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh.

In 2018, he supplied hand-made Mackintosh chairs for the shop at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow. He crafted over thirty chairs for Mackintosh at the Willow, which had to pass scrutiny by the advisory panel to the board. At the official opening of Mackintosh at the Willow, he was formally presented to HRH the Prince of Wales and HRH the Duchess of Cornwall. Each piece of timber is selected by hand for grain figure and colour. All stages of production call on traditional skills and techniques, with each piece carefully assembled and finished by hand. Bruce Hamilton Furniture Makers is a registered company in Scotland.

Bespoke commissions shaped around a practical need recur in the two accounts of this Anniesland furniture making business, both describing pieces made to fit a specific purpose. A slate-topped cabinet used for storing LPs was remade so that it looked better and held records more efficiently, while an oak window seat with built-in storage was built for a bay window, sized and styled to match furniture already in the home.

Bruce is named in both accounts, described as welcoming, willing to show visitors the range of pieces in his workshop, and clearly skilled at his craft. The finished joinery is called beautiful and the standard of making high, with the added storage valued as much as the appearance.