Iona Celtic Art and Euphemia Ritchie, ca. 1900

This is a photograph of Euphemia Ritchie (1862-1941) of Iona Celtic Art with her dog Kim on the front step of her shop in Iona surrounded by jewellery and silverware. Ritchie sits in the doorway of the shop, located just inside the southern gate into Iona’s Nunnery grounds. Tucked up in a scarf and woollen cap, wearing a dark skirt and jacket with black leather boots, she perches on the front step as she holds up a biscuit for Kim. A small bag under her coat probably holds the proceeds from sales of the jewellery and silverware goods that surround her in the shop. On the back of the door is a glass display case containing brooches, pendants and buckles in Scottish-Celtic revivalist designs. A small shelf under the window displays objects in boxes and small pieces of silver jewellery are pinned to a lined board. A large brass metal plate hangs inside the window. Through the open door objects and glass display cases glint in the light. The shop’s prime position within the nunnery grounds, framed by ancient buildings within coastal landscapes, made her goods popular with visitors to the island.

Euphemia and her husband Alexander Ritchie (1856-1941) met at the Glasgow School of Art in the mid-1890s. They married in 1898 and opened the nunnery shop in Alexander’s native Iona in 1900. Iona was popular with tourists seeking escape from urban life through an immersive experience in a small island embedded with ancient myths and legends of the sixth century Saint Columba and the origins of Christianity. The Ritchies drew on the carved stones and crosses of Iona and the West Highlands, along with the illuminated manuscripts of the early monasteries, to provide templates for their designs. They also made objects that harked back to a Viking and a Highland clan past. Silver brooches and clasps depict galleys – a symbol of the Vikings and a motif that appeared on the gravestones of several medieval Highland chiefs – traversing tumultuous waves executed in sea-blue enamels. The Ritchies combined craft work with entrepreneurial flair. They designed and made objects themselves, and trained younger islanders in metalwork, leather tooling and embroidery. As the business grew they outsourced some aspects of production to manufacturers in Birmingham and Glasgow.