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It was in the congested entrance hall of the Mitchell Theatre in Glasgow that I first came across the name. Raised voices were unusual in the normally restrained confines of the space where the usual crowd browsed quietly among piles of junk and collectables at the once-a-month antiques fair. The heated discussion between a potential customer and one of the stallholders, who saw himself in the role of expert, blew up when the would-be vendor insisted the volume with beautifully-decorated cover he was hoping to sell for #50 had been designed by the great man himself, Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
Inquisitive onlookers who managed to catch a glimpse of the tome concerned could see where he was coming from and were soon putting in their tuppenceworth as the punter with a reddening face insisted the stallholder was talking nonsense. ''It's Mackintosh. I've had it authenticated by HereChristie's,'' the seller, I later discovered, lied.
''It's typical of the work of Talwin Morris,'' retorted the indignant customer. ''If it's not, I'll eat my hat.''
The volume in question - The Scottish Parliament - certainly had a Mackintosh link, albeit a tenuous one. It had been published in 1901 by the well-known Glasgow publishing house, Blackie & Son Ltd. And Mackintosh, as every self-respecting fan of art nouveau knows, was commissioned to design the remarkable Hill House in Helensburgh by the boss of the company, Walter Blackie.
By coincidence, the project might never have got off the ground had it not been for the intervention of another of the great masters of art nouveau design - that man, Talwin Morris. Equally talented as some would undoubtedly argue, and one of the unsung heroes of the style which has in recent years become almost synonymous with Glasgow, the book illustrator and designer who was a contemporary and fan of Mackintosh's work had been appointed art manager by Blackie and travelled from London to make Glasgow his new home when he took up the post in 1893.
Finding he and members of the Glasgow School - Mackintosh, Herbert MacNair and the Macdonald sisters - all shared a common love of natural forms, they quickly became friends. Many feel that Mackintosh had a profound influence on Morris's style, although it would seem they both drew inspiration from each other as the similarities in the stylised bud, rose and leaf motifs which frequently appear in their work clearly shows.
Both artists shared an architectural background, and when Walter Blackie discussed his desire to have a modern, family home built, Mackintosh was introduced by his friend as the perfect candidate for the job and won the commission. Morris was, around this time, broadening his horizons too and began to turn his considerable talents to, among other activities, stained glass, furniture, fabric and jewellery design.
His reputation earned him enthusiastic praise both at home and abroad and exposure in the magazine The Studio and the German publication Dekorative Kunst ensured he would go on to win international acclaim. He turned the interior of his home - a turreted mansion within the ruined walls of Dunglass Castle, 15 miles west of Glasgow - into a permanent show space for his creativity. Growing more confident and flamboyant, he began to sign his covers with stylised initials and even incorporated three graduated circles on some book fronts as another tell-tale sign that he had been responsible - the symbols, when precisely placed, representing the initials T and M in Morse code.
In the 18 years he worked for Blackie & Son, Morris produced an astonishing range of illustrative work and cover designs, earning a worldwide reputation in the process and serious admiration from his contemporaries.
Those publications which carry his unmistakable hallmark are widely admired to this day, too, and cherished by a band of enthusiasts who steadfastly thumb their way through acres of second-hand bookshop shelves hoping to find any new acquisition.
Fiona McSporran from Glasgow has one of the best collections of his work, having been an admirer since she picked up her first copy of the one of the Blackie-published Red Letter series in 1988. Since then, from hunting far and wide, she has amassed thousands of pieces of his work, prized examples of which will go on public display for the first time when, as part of Glasgow's celebrations as City of Architecture and Design, an exhibition entitled Judging A Book By Its Cover is mounted at Mackintosh's Queen's Cross Church in the city's Garscube Road. The event is scheduled to run from June to September and will feature examples of Morris's work in textile, metal work and furniture design as well as his book designs.
Describing how she came to start the collection, Fiona explains: ''That initial purchase was the first time I had ever bought a book for its cover and not its contents. I began to find more and more and, realising there was very little documentation on him, began to research the subject in libraries. As a result, my house is literally crammed full of Talwin Morris-designed books I have found. That is how exhibition came about. No one else has a collection like it, I'm afraid.''
The former Glasgow School of Art graduate worked for fine art auctioneers Christie's until recently branching out on her own as an independent art researcher. She is currently writing a book about Talwin Morris which she hopes to have published a year from now.
Her favourite Morris-designed cover from hundreds he did for Blackie is A Girl Of Galway. ''His approach for this cover was graphically much more direct, choosing to enliven the solid red ground with flowing linear white lines and gold punctuation. The simplicity of the portrait motif and the arrangement of text celebrates his skill at complementing design with typography to form a unity of over-all design,'' she says.
The BBC television programme The Antiques Inspectors will also feature her collection, Antiques Roadshow resident expert Paul Atterbury having been filmed interviewing Fiona about her passion for the designer's work last month. The new series, with an early Sunday evening slot, will start on Sunday April 25 for eight weeks.
Talwin Morris died in 1911 at Torwood, the home he had shared with his wife Alice, just behind the village of Bowling in Dunbartonshire, since 1899. The final piece in the Mackintosh/Morris jigsaw, a gravestone erected by his widow after his death, was designed by Mackintosh and sits in a quiet corner of Dumbarton Cemetery under a weeping willow tree which was planted at the time of his interment.
The inscription reads: ''Love is more great than we perceive, and death is the keeper of unknown redemptions.''
And as for that antiques fair argument, Fiona has settled it once and for all. She explains: ''I suppose it is easy to understand why people get confused like this, but the plain truth is that Charles Rennie Mackintosh designed very few book covers - only three I believe, for Blackie - and they were all done at the very end of his life around 1923/25.
''The Scottish Parliament book is absolutely beautiful and one of my particular favourites by Talwin Morris.''