Honesty Mirror

On the last day of our Mackintosh Tour I took the group to the Hunterian Art Gallery for a tour of the Mackintosh House, along with a tour of the excellent Architecture Exhibition, Sketches and Watercolour Paintings.

As it was so wet we took a taxi to Kelvingrove Art Gallery for lunch and then viewed the Mackintosh and Glasgow Style Gallery. The group then had some time to explore the gallery. We then headed back into town to have tea and scones at the Willow Tea Rooms.

The 'Honesty mirror', was designed by Frances Macdonald (1873-1921) around 1896. The respoussé decoration of the frame, made of beaten tin, contains the motifs of human figures and stylized plant forms that characterised Frances Macdonald's early work. The Honesty plant (Hunaria biennis) is the focal point of the frame's subject. Two androgynous human figures flank the frame, their long flowing hair and robes merging into the plant forms themselves. In the upper part of this mirror the two figures hold steady and point to one central honesty seed-pod, framed against the circle of the sun. The image this frame contains is therefore considered to be an honest representation of the person it appears to visually echo. This link to honesty is perhaps a humorous reference to the adage that the mirror never lies.

My evening finished with a concert at Mackintosh Queen's Cross by the excellent Bel Canto, the Edinburgh-based, 12-voice a cappella group.