About - Bruce Hamilton

Bruce hamilton

Bruce is the third generation of his family to work in the timber trade and he has almost forty years’ experience in the furniture industry. Serving his apprenticeship as a chair maker, Bruce was presented the award of top student in his final year at college. He then went on to work for various companies, gaining sound knowledge of all aspects of furniture construction.

In the autumn of 1990, the company Bruce was working for ceased trading, which gave him the opportunity to realise his long-held ambition: to set up his own business. His first workshop would be his father’s double garage; after attending a government-run business start-up course, Bruce Hamilton Furniture Makers was established in the spring of 1991.

After two years of trading, Bruce’s business had outgrown his initial garage workshop and the need for more space was necessary. Moving to a redundant joiner’s workshop in Johnstone, Bruce gained more space and he acquired his first heavy-duty woodwork machines, which helped him to step up production and tender for larger commissions.

It was during his time in the new workshop in 1994 that he was given two important commissions in Glasgow. Firstly, the dining room furniture for the House for an Art Lover, followed by the furniture for The Willow Tea Rooms.

Subsequent notable commissions were to follow, including 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 2014, Bruce Hamilton Furniture Makers relocated to the current workshop in Anniesland, in the West End of Glasgow. He continues to undertake work for private clients, with numerous commissions both at home and abroad.

In 2018, the 150th anniversary of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s birth, Bruce supplied a selection of hand-made Mackintosh chairs for the shop at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow. The chairs were available for purchase during the Mackintosh exhibition, ‘Charles Rennie Mackintosh: Making the Glasgow Style’. Later that year, Bruce had the honour of being asked to create furniture for one of C.R. Mackintosh’s most exquisite buildings, ‘Mackintosh at the Willow’. The commission involved several visits to the Glasgow School of Art, to survey and measure an original chair in the collection. Bruce crafted over thirty chairs, all of which were required to be of the highest standard, and pass scrutiny by the advisory panel to the board of Mackintosh at the Willow. At the official opening, in recognition of his work, and on behalf of the many craft workers and tradespeople involved in the restoration of Mackintosh at the Willow, Bruce was privileged to be formally presented to HRH the Prince of Wales and HRH the Duchess of Cornwall.

Whether it be panel products, veneered boards, imported or native hardwoods, each piece of timber is selected by hand for grain figure and colour. All the stages of production call on the traditional skills and techniques of the craftsman with each piece being carefully assembled and finished by hand.

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“The chairs and table have arrived in perfect condition, and we are very pleased with the result; in particular, the colour/shade of the chairs and fabric perfectly match our existing furniture/floor. It sure was worth waiting! We thank you a lot. P.S. We also have appreciated the efficient design of the crate … the furniture did travel safely.”

Christian and Marie-Antoine

(PARIS)

Bruce hamilton

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