'Dodoware' vase of earthenware, and painted on an ivory coloured slip with two exotic dancers connected with long swags of vines, possibly decorated by Dorothy Carleton Smyth or Olive Carleton Smyth, made by Pilkingtons Tile and Pottery Co. Ltd., Clifton Junction, 1911-ca. 1930.

Vase of earthenware, oviform in shape with a cylindrical neck, and painted on an ivory coloured slip with two exotic dancers connected with long swags of vines, and the costumes are enamelled in purple, yellow and mauve and decorated with gilding which is also applied to their bracelets and the vine pattern around the neck of the vase, and the rim has a black chequered pattern.

Dorothy Carleton Smyth was the sister of Olive, both being fringe members of the Mackintosh circle in Glasgow. Olive taught fashion at the Glasgow School of Art from before 1918 until her death in 1933, and designed for the theatre companies of Frank Benson, Martin Harvey and Quintin Opera Company. Her work was influenced by the current prominence of the Diaghilev Ballets and Bakst's designs.

A Pilkington blank decorated by one of the Carleton Smyth sisters probably at the Glasgow School of Art where Dorothy and Olive Carlton Smyth were students and later tutors. Both were interested in and influenced by the designs of Leon Bakst for the Russian ballet. Dorothy designed for the professional theatre in Britain, and abroad (Paris & Stockholm) and in 1910 her work was compared to Bakst's designs for Nijinsky and Le Dieu Bleu, and she is also said to have been interested in ceramics, but see also Olive's paintings of late 1920s. (refs: see reg. descr.) Glasgow School of Art maintained a ceramic studio.

C.309-1976