Catalogues
Macdowell Stevens
The origins of the McDowall Steven company can be traced back through one of the founders, James Edlington, to the earliest days of the great Glasgow foundries. As with many other of the iron companies, the firm McDowall Steven & Co was the eventual outcome of a number of mergers and takeovers, the final company emerging in 1862, with the foundry named as the Milton Ironworks.
Like their contempories, the Lion Foundry, McDowall Steven produced some distinctive decorative ironwork, including particularly notable fountains featuring idiosynchratic embellishments such as otters, fish and an octopus. However, consideration of their catalogues will confirm that their whimsical elements were solidly underpinned by the more usual products of foundries, with 450 designs of gutter being listed, although some of these were highly decorative in themselves.
The company were also renowned for both the quality and detail of their castings, with a good example being the façade of Central Station, Glasgow.
McDowall Steven & Co also produced a number of styles of bandstand. These were of particular note in that the Milton Ironworks examples made use of a different method of roof construction than the majority of their compeittors, such as the Saracen Foundry of the MacFarlane Company. Several of the McDowall Steven bandstands are still in existence, including an excellent example in North Lodge Park, Darlington, restored by Lost Art Limited and featured in Paul Rabbitts' definitive book on British bandstands.
McDowell Steven & Co Bandstands
The company relocated the foundry to Falkirk in 1912 but appear to have ceased trading sometime around 1920.
As a result of carrying out the restoration work shown above, Lost Art Limited carry examples of castings for McDowall Steven bandstands as well as patterns for further casting of these items. In addtion we also have copies of catalogues which include detailed illustrations of many of their products.