John Augustus Holms was born on April 1st 1866, the third son of Archibald Campbell Holms (1800-1889) and Marion Gilchrist (1833-1908).

Holms Senior, son of a Kilbarchan weaver, was a successful textile manufacturer who, by the age of forty, was able to retire with what his obituary discreetly called 'a moderate competency'-sufficient however to allow him to purchase a small estate at Sandyford, Paisley and take up a new role as respected and influential pillar of the community.

At the age of fifty-five Archibald Holms married a young woman in her early twenties (reputedly the daughter of his first love who had spurned him) and fathered twelve children, ten of whom were still living when he died on June 9^th 1889.

Judged by his father to be the most intelligent of his children, John Augustus showed an early interest in handling money and kept meticulous records of his childhood expenses - even the Sunday penny in the collection plate was accounted for!

Perhaps it was inevitable that such an interest should draw him towards a career as a stockbroker and on July 10th 1894 he was elected to the Association of Glasgow Stock Exchange and began to make his fortune.

Holms does not appear to have valued money for its own sake: indeed

was a favourite aphorism and by the turn of the century he was becoming well known as a patron and connoisseur of the arts.

In 1901 Holms met the architect Robert Lorimer and together they planned the construction of Holms's most ambitious project - a splendid country estate where his superb art collection would be perfectly displayed in a specially designed mansionhouse set in the heart of magnificent gardens, complete with stables and kennels for his horses and hounds.

Although John Holms enjoyed the company of wealthy and titled people and envisioned himself as laird of Formakin, he was no elitist when it came to the value of art which, as he indicated in his address to members of the Paisley Art Institute in January 1910, he saw not as an 'investment' nor even as an enrichment of life but as a necessity:

Holms's deeds were as good as his words in fact for he himself was recognised as 'an admirable example of one who was willing to let others share in his art treasures by lending his pictures for public exhibition.

It must be said, however, that artists and dealers found Holms a difficult man to deal with on occasion. Louis Davis, who designed a window in Paisley Abbey in memory of John Holms's father; found Holms most unwilling to pay his agreed fee and wrote in injured tones to Lorimer, asking him to intercede on his behalf:

Holms was, however, much more than a shrewd and exacting businessman for, running parallel with these characteristics was a strong romantic element typified in his love of beautiful things, his passionate interest in art, his love of the countryside and of flowers.

There is, too, a romantic nostalgia for the past exemplified in his interest in old fashioned and forgotten plants and in the design of Formakin. Holms was delighted when, having sent the editor of Countrylife a photograph of the mansionhouse, he mistook it for an Cold Scotch house; I take it to be of early in the seventeenth century'. On occasion Holms's desire for beautiful things overruled sound business sense; in February 1904, for example, during one of his periodic financial crises, he writes Notwithstanding the bad times I have got some perfect dreams of chairs' and the following month 'yes, I did buy the Bacon Cup I couldn't help it. I wonder how my house is to be built if I go on?'

Flowers were his other great passion and Holms was an expert horticulturist, quoting with approval the old dictum the who hath two pieces of bread, let him sell one and buy some bloom of the narcissi, for bread may be food for the body but narcissi is food for the soul'.

The gardens and policies at Formakin were planned and laid before the buildings were started and both native and imported trees were planted in the grounds to create lush woodlands in keeping with the medieval design of the house: Scots pine, yew and Norway maple stood shoulder to shoulder with more exotic varieties such as Persian Ironwood and Prickly Castor Oil Tree. Rhododendrons, too, were a particular favourite (Holms was a founder member of the Rhododendron Association) and he grew several varieties on the estate.

His art collection described by the Glasgow Heralds as one of the largest and most important brought together by a Scottish collector 'was catalogued and sold to pay his massive debts. The auction began on October 17^th 1938 and thousands of people attended the sale, some to buy and some merely out of curiosity, as Holms's art collection, books and personal belongings came under the hammer. Finally, the estate itself was sold in 1940 to A.E. Pickard, the Glasgow- based entrepreneur, and the only bidder who paid £7,000. It is estimated that Holms had spent £60,000 on labour and materials alone. Holms once remarked that 'if you want people to remember you the thing to do is to leave them in debt'. It is now half a century since John Augustus Holms died and all his debts are long forgotten - it is we who are now in his debt for Formakin is a price-less, unique piece of twentieth century history which, with good-will and financial commitment, could become the architectural showpiece of the West of Scotland. Holms would surely have approved!

Again, in his acquisitions Holms had his own, sometimes rather dubious, methods of handling dealers. The purchase of the famous 'Conquest of India' tapestries is a case in point.

These were sent to Holms 'on approval' by Galeries Heilbronner in Paris on January 15th 1912 with a note to the effect that '5he price for the four pieces is low one and specially reduced for you After four months' silence Heilbronner was compelled to write again enquiring whether or not Holms wished to buy the tapestries. Holms, knowing that Heibronner had had the tapestries for sale for some time wrote thus to Lorimer who was acting as his agent:

Heilbronner finally capitulated and agreed on a price of £3,000. By June 1912 however he still had not been paid and wrote again, with admirable restraint:'since the tapestries have been in your hands already six months I would be very pleased to have your cheque in payment for them'

Holms probably did not regard such dealings as anything less than good business practice and he was by no means a petty bargain hunter', a breed he appears to have despised.

"Never buy a bargain merely because it supposed to be a bargain. I hate the bargain hunter..." he advised members of the Paisley Art Institute. As collectors they should "never buy a thing of less merit than that which you already possess. Always buy better and better and better" Holms's own standards were extremely high but he was prepared to pay a good deal for items he wished to acquire and some times he paid far too much - even outbidding the British Museum on one occasion. These same high standards are apparent in the specifications for the building of Formakin where even the most utilitarian items were to be of the highest quality - the switch board for the electricity supply, for example, was to be made of polished marble mounted in a polished teakwood frame and having a teakwood door with lock and key.