LE MORTE D'ARTHUR. An original ceramic painting.

A beautifully detailed and fluidly painted, glazed earthenware plate showing a woman weeping over the body of a knight, with a hound and two falcons at his feet, set before a sunset-hued shoreline. Signed 'AMcB' on the rear. In fine condition, the colours bright and fresh. The underside with only a 1mm chip to the glaze at the rear edge, which is not visible from the front. An excellent example of Ann Macbeth's ceramic work.

Ann Macbeth had links to the Glasgow School of Art as both a student and a teacher for over 30 years. She worked across a range of decorative arts, including embroidery, metalwork, bookbinding, ceramic decoration and china painting, the latter of which she fired herself in her own kiln. She was influential in her advocacy for the accessibility of arts and crafts to all social classes, championing the use of humble materials such as linen and cotton, and she believed that the crafts traditionally produced by women in their spare time should be valued as professional skills and be priced to provide a fair income. She was actively involved with women's suffrage, using her artistic abilities to create banners and textile pieces for demonstrations and to commemorate the 80 hunger strikers held at Holloway prison, as well as becoming involved in direct action herself, for which she was imprisoned: the Glasgow School of Art Archives holds a letter sent by Macbeth to the School's secretary which describes being put in solitary confinement and force-fed for two weeks, and the lasting impact this had on her health.