Bruce Talbert was a prominent member of the first wave of Glaswegian architects and designers, including Alexander 'Greek' Thompson, Daniel Cottier and Christopher Dresser. Talbert originally trained as a carver before working as an architectural draughtsman in Glasgow.
Bruce Talbert subsequently became a prolific commercial designer of furniture, metalwork, stained glass, wallpapers, textiles and carpets and produced several influential publications, including ‘Gothic Forms applied to Furniture Metalwork’ and ‘Decoration for Domestic Purposes’, which had a big impact on the way in which the revived Gothic style was used in domestic design.
Through his various publications he influenced the international design community and he was particularly celebrated in The United States. It could be said that Talbert was responsible for the design vocabulary of designers and firms such as the Herter Brothers, Kimbel and Cabus, Frank Furness and Daniel Pabst.