Description
of circular outline with repoussé flower head entrelac border and with Gaelic inscription,NAH.UILE/ LATHA/ CHI'S NACH/ FHAIC the centre with turquoise enamel boss bearing the inscription, the body with applied script BEA/ NNACH/ DAN, the underside with inscription GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART/ D. CARLETON SMYTHE/ DESIGNER/ W. ARMSTONG DAVIDSON/ CRAFTSMAN/ DE C LEWTHWAITE DEWAR/ ENAMELLER, hallmarked Glasgow, 1904, maker’s mark JR (possibly James Reid & Co.), 38 oz.
Dimensions
49cm (19in) diameter
Footnote
Provenance:
Sotheby's, Perthshire 'Silver and Jewels, Wemyss Ware, Scottish And Sporting Paintings, Drawings and Watercolours', 26th August 1991, Lot 92
Note:
Glasgow School of Art served as both a place of instruction and collaboration for many young artists at the turn of the century. Dorothy Carleton Smyth attended the School from 1895 to 1905 and, while principally excelling in theatre and costume design, was skilled in the design of stained glass, sculpture, painting and metalwork. She became Principal of Commercial Art at the school in 1914. One of her closest friends was fellow student, and later colleague, De Courcy Lewthwaite Dewar, whose main contribution to the Glasgow Style was her enamel and metalwork. Characterised by its strong colour and vigorous outline, her enamelling was frequently featured in 'The Studio' and led to her later being appointed instructor in enamels at the Art School. Dewar was influenced in the early days of her career by her tutor of metalwork, Peter Wylie Davidson, who later joined his brother and fellow silversmith, William Armstrong Davidson, working at his studio at 93 Hope Street, Glasgow. William Davidson studied design as an Evening School student at Glasgow School of Art between 1902-04. The building in Hope Street also housed Dewar's studio, where she worked from 1900 until 1926, collaborating on a variety of commissioned objects in repoussé and silver during that period.
The quaich offered here bears inscriptions in Gaelic which translate as 'Bless the song' and 'Everyday you see and everyday you don't'. It is not known why this beautiful collabarative object was made or the reason for the choice of incription. It may be that the inscriptions in some way allude to the idea that in art there is always more to be seen than meets the eye, a theme explored by C.R. Mackintosh in his1896 drawing 'Part Seen, Imagined Part' (Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries).