De Courcy Lewthwaite Dewar

De Courcy Lewthwaite Dewar (12 February 1878 – 24 November 1959) was a decorative metalwork designer, and member of the Glasgow Girls group of artists during the 1890/1900s.

Early life Dewar was born on 12 February 1878 in Kandy, Sri Lanka, which was then known as British Ceylon. Her father was a tea planter called John Lewthwaite Dewar and her mother's name was Amelia Cochrane. Her unusual first name is a family name, although she was also known by the pet name of Kooroovi, meaning small bird in Tamil. Dewar's sister, Margaret Cochrane Dewar, studied at Queen Margaret's College in Glasgow, and became one of the first women in Glasgow to graduate in Medicine, in 1894.

Career

Dewar studied enamel and metalwork at Glasgow School of Art from 1891 until 1908 or 1909. She was taught metalwork by Peter Wylie Davidson. Her work was often illustrated in The Studio magazine. For thirty-eight years, De Courcy taught at Glasgow School of Art, being appointed instructor of enamels by Fra Newbery. She worked alongside fellow artists Ann Macbeth, Jessie M. King, Dorothy Carleton Smyth, Jean Delville, Peter Wylie Davidson, and Kellock Brown.

She instituted the Dewar Prize for enamels to be awarded at the Annual Exhibition of the Glasgow School of Art Club. She had a studio at Central Chamber, 93 Hope Street, Glasgow, where she worked independently from 1900 - 1926. After 1926, she continued to work in a studio at her home at 15 Woodside Terrace, Glasgow. Some of her decorative metalwork pieces were used for illustration in Applied Design in Precious Metals, a publication by her colleague Peter Wylie Davidson. One item featured in the book was a presentation casket featuring the coat of arms of Glasgow, made by Dewar in 1910. The casket was made of zinc and silver, and was decorated with moonstones and enamel panels. In 1935, this casket earned her the Lauder Prize of the Glasgow Society of Lady Artists. This casket is on long term loan to Glasgow Museums. She also designed a banner for Glasgow and West of Scotland Association for Women's Suffrage in 1911 for use at the coronation of George V in London for a fee of 30 shillings. This banner, stating 'Let Glasgow Flourish' is now held at the Glasgow Museums Resource Centre in Glasgow.

Dewar and her friend operated a house for destitute women in the Bellshill, called Harkness House, which the Prince of Wales visited in the 1930s. Footage of De Courcy at the opening can be viewed online on the National Library of Scotland website. This may be the only footage there is of Glasgow suffragettes.

She wrote the History of the Glasgow Society of Lady Artists' Club, published in 1950. While writing this she was the president of the Glasgow Society of Lady Artists. The society is now known as the Glasgow Society of Women Artists.