A VICTORIAN GLASGOW ATHENAEUM MEDALLION awarded to Margaret Gilmour, of navette outline the obverse with figure above Glasgow city armorial, the reverse with seated figure of art on classical column with bust behind, the edge engraved Margaret Gilmour, School of Art Session 1898 – 97, in box inscribed to interior ‘The Art Jewellers 24 Argyle Arcade Glasgow, G&J Gilmour’

(6.3cm long, 53.3g)

Note: Margaret Gilmour (1863 – 1942) was an alumnus of Glasgow School of Art 1877-1880 and an early exponent of the Glasgow style. The design style was popular from the early 1890s to around 1914 with Charles Rennie Mackintosh the main proponent along with his wife Margaret MacDonald. Margaret Gilmour and her sister, Mary, maintained a studio producing metalwork and teaching at 179 West George Street, Glasgow from 1893 to the early 1940s. Her work is often unsigned, or marked simply MG, and appears at auction infrequently, when it does, it can achieve strong prices. Lyon & Turnbull offered a brass wall clock which achieved £3900 (Buyer's premium included), in their sale of Decorative Arts; Design since 1860, 23rd October 2019, lot 280. This Glasgow Athenaeum medallion was awarded from the Glasgow Athenaeum which was the precursor to the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, which provided training in commercial skills, literature, languages, sciences, mathematics and music. Dated 1897-8, which was after her training at the Glasgow School of Art, the medal demonstrates how Gilmour was an advocate of both teaching and continual learning for herself.