Robert ‘Scottie’ Wilson was born in Glasgow in 1890. He served in the British Army during his teens and worked in Scotland as a bric-a-brac and scrap dealer. In the 1920s Scottie visited Canada and finally emigrated to Toronto in 1931 where he set up a second hand shop in Yonge Street.

Scottie Wilson started to draw during the 1930s and soon developed a very intense style of ink drawing of dream-like creatures such as swans, birds, fish, trees and flowers.  He started to exhibit his work in Canada under the patronage of Douglas Duncan during the early 1940s and in 1944 he returned to Britain settling in London.  His work in Primitive Style was exhibited in London and in Paris.  He now has drawings in the Tate Gallery and the Metropolitan Museum, New York.

In the early 1960s Royal Worcester commissioned Scottie Wilson to design a tableware pattern.  It was produced in two different colours, black printed onto terracotta and grey and black printed onto white glazed earthenware.  A whole range of dinner, tea and coffee ware was produced at the Palissy Pottery in Stoke on Trent that was then owned by Royal Worcester Ltd.  The ‘Scottie Wilson’ pattern was based on the totem poles of the North American Indians that the artist had studied during his many visits to Canada.

The pattern was unfortunately not a success in Britain probably being too expensive for the target audience, although it was much admired in design circles.  Production finished by 1965 and now pieces in this design have become collectors items both in Britain and North America.

Scottie Wilson spent his last years working from a studio in Kilburn, London.