Signed Plate Painted by Mary Nicol Neill Armour (née Steel) RSA, RSW (Scottish 1902-2000), 1924

Porcelain plate with lustrous blue glazes depicting organic forms signed M Steel and dated 1924.

Minor loss and scratches to the overglaze enamel.

Mary Steel was the maiden name of Mary Nicol Neill Armour, Scottish landscape and still life painter. She studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1920 until 1925 and married the landscape and figure painter William Armour in 1927. They settled in Milngavie and founded the Milngavie Art Club. Armour exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy in London, the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh (winning the Guthrie Prize in 1937), the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour, the Scottish Society of Artists and the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts. In 1941, she was elected an associate of the Royal Scottish Watercolour Society, becoming a full member in 1956. She became a member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1958. After the Education Authority legislation for married women had been repealed, Armour returned to teaching still life painting at Glasgow School of Art from 1951 to 1962. In 1972, she was awarded the Cargill Prize from the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts and became a full member of the Institute in 1977. She was elected Honorary President of both Glasgow School of Art and Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts.