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elevation plan to
Wilby house, 1909
to be produced cheaply, eventually put an end to the mass consumption of linen.
from the 1930s the hawklymuir factory become gradually less profitable, especially
after the arrival of man-made fibres, and the firm eventually closed down in 1961.
John Blyth, known as ‘Jack’ in adult life, married alice May lowe from
Manchester in 1908 and the following year he inherited a plot of land from his father on
loughborough Road, Kirkcaldy and commissioned an architect to design Wilby house.
the house had large windows and high ceilings typical of large edwardian homes built in
abundance during this period in edinburgh and Glasgow. the marriage was to produce
three daughters: Dorothy, Margery and Cora. Cora, the youngest daughter, went on to
marry a refugee from franco’s spain called luis Gabriel Portillo, a Professor of Civic
law and prominent Republican. they provided several grandsons for John and alice, the
youngest of whom is Michael.
Jack Blyth had no artistic training whatsoever apart from in music. he regularly
played the organ in the Dysart Parish Church and always had the capacity to be
emotionally stirred by music or great art. his parents had no pictures apart from two
lithographs of their own portraits.
although it is not known what sparked off Blyth’s love of art, there were plenty
of opportunities in early twentieth-century Glasgow and edinburgh for him to form his
tastes; and he was not alone. a number of collectors with fortunes made in manufacture
and shipping were beginning their collections, most notably William Burrell, whose
collection eventually came to be housed in the eponymous gallery as part of Glasgow
Museums. others such as William McInnes, D.W.t. Cargill and leonard Gow were
friends and rivals assembling significant collections of British and continental art. John
Nairn was another collector from Kirkcaldy whose substantial linoleum manufacturing
business was the town’s largest employer. his daughter married Robert Wemyss
honeyman who also became an important collector in his own right and another patron
of s.J. Peploe as well as a friend of Jack Blyth. this market was in part created and
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