EDWARD ATKINSON HORNEL (SCOTTISH 1864 - 1933), SPRING FLOWERS oil on canvas, signed and dated 1913 63.5cm x 77cm (25 x 30 inches) Framed (original) Label verso: Robert Macindoe, Carver, Gilder and Picture Frame Maker, West Regent Street, Glasgow. Provenance: The late James Craig of Glasgow and by descent. This exceptional picture was originally purchased in the early 1900's by James Craig of James Craig's Bakeries and Tea Rooms (Glasgow). The business was started around 1870 by James Craig Snr and his two eldest children James and Jessie grew up in the business and continued to expand it after the death of James Snr in 1908. It was around this time that Harry Lauder would get a round of approving applause for confiding to his audience that he'd been away buying ''a cookie frae Jimmy Craig's in the Wood-lands Ro-ad.'' There were twenty James Craig's Tea Rooms in Glasgow and the most prominent were The Ruhl at 123, Sauchiehall Street and The Gordon in Gordon Street. These were multi storey purpose built premises described as ''the most luxurious and up-to-date in the city.'' In 1936 it was reported that James Craig's employed around 1100 people and were ''known for never having had an industrial dispute.'' It was in The Ruhl and The Gordon that the majority of Craig's famous pictures hung and they became known as ''the unofficial Art Galleries of Glasgow''. T.J. Honeyman (the eminent Director of Glasgow's official Art Galleries) in an undated document describes Craig's collection as ''first rate examples of the work of well-known Scottish artists.'' ''Jas Craig's policy of exhibiting paintings so that all his customers might see them has given delight to a great number of people. I salute the pictures and Craig's for the opportunity they give to enlarge our experience.'' Craig bought generously and according to the Daily Record in 1932 the paintings which hung in the smoke rooms at Gordon Street alone were worth ''£3000 - £4000.'' The artists he bought included George Houston and David Gauld, who acted as advisors, Hornel, William Wells, Stuart Park, D.Y. Cameron, Zorn, James McBey and J. Campbell Mitchell. In the early decades of the 20th century, there was probably no finer collection of ''contemporary'' Scottish paintings in private hands. It is believed that ''Spring Flowers'' was retained in the Craig family private collection and was never hung in any of the Tea Rooms.