{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2017}} {{Use British English|date=September 2017}} {{Infobox artist | name = Alison Geissler M.B.E. | image = AlisonGeissler3.jpg | caption = Alison Geissler 1983 © CSG CIC Glasgow Museums Collection | birth_name = Alison Cornwall McDonald | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1907|04|13}} | birth_place = Edinburgh, Scotland | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2011|01|25|1907|04|13}} | death_place = Edinburgh, Scotland | spouse = William Geissler | field = Glass Engraving | training = Edinburgh College of Art, Helen Monro Turner }}
'''Alison Cornwall Geissler''' MBE, née '''McDonald''' (13 April 1907 – 25 January 2011), was one of the foremost glass engravers in Scotland during the mid-twentieth century.<ref>Scotland's Glass, 400 Years of Glassmaking, {{ISBN|978-0-9549196-5-8}},Authors: Shiona Airlie & Brian Blench</ref><ref>Goodearl, Tom and Marilyn Goodearl. Engraved Glass: International Contemporary Artists. {{ISBN|9781851493074}}</ref>
==Education and personal life== Educated at The Mary Erskine School for Girls in Edinburgh, she entered Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) in 1925, where she studied drawing and painting. After graduating in 1930, she was awarded a post-graduate scholarship. In 1931 she married the watercolourist painter William Geissler, a former tutor at ECA who had recently been appointed Art Master at Perth Academy. In 1935, William was appointed to the Art Department of Moray House College of Education, and the couple returned to Edinburgh, where their three children, Paul, Erik and Catherine,<ref>{{cite web|title=King's College London - Catherine Geissler|url=http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lsm/research/divisions/dns/about/people/Profiles/catherine-geissler.aspx|accessdate=13 January 2016}}</ref> were born. Between 1940 and 1943, the menace of German bombing on Leith Docks not far from their home induced the family to evacuate first to Dolphinton, then to Carlops, villages outside Edinburgh. Her grandson is the news broadcaster Martin Geissler.
==Career== Geissler's glass engraving career started at the end of the Second World War, when she returned to ECA to study under Helen Monro Turner,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Blench|first1=Brian|title=Through a Glass Lightly|url=http://textualities.net/brian-blench/through-a-glass-lightly|website=textualities|date=8 November 2013 |accessdate=16 July 2015}}</ref> who had come back from studies in Germany just before the outbreak of World War II. Monro Turner opened the glass engraving department at Edinburgh College of Art in January 1941, despite the challenges of obtaining equipment during the war period.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Andrews|first1=Frank|title=Edinburgh College of Art - Glass Students & their teachers|url=http://www.scotlandsglass.co.uk/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=155:eca-glass-students&catid=14:scottish-glass-organisations-a-education&Itemid=18|website=Information and History: Scotland's Glass|publisher=Frank Andrews|accessdate=16 July 2015|date=17 October 2010}}</ref> At the time of Geissler's enrolment in 1945, ECA possessed a single glass engraving lathe that overheated, which allowed only intermittent and unreliable access, and had to be shared in shifts with Monro’s other student, Harold Gordon.<ref>{{cite web|last1=NationalMuseumsScotland|title=Harold Gordon Goblets|url=http://talesofthings.com/thing/6112/|website=Tales of Things|publisher=TOTeM Labs|accessdate=16 July 2015|date=8 April 2011}}</ref> This inconvenience was compounded by the official regulation preventing students from working in the evenings. Acquisition of a glass engraving lathe from Germany in 1947 finally enabled Geissler to work independently from home. Almost all of her work involved traditional copper wheel engraving, with oil and carborundum powder as abrasive.
Her work is "marked by elegant stylised design balanced with beautifully observed natural detail".<ref>{{cite web|title=Obituary: Alison Geissler MBE, glass engraver|url=http://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/obituary-alison-geissler-mbe-glass-engraver-1-1499514|website=The Scotsman|publisher=Johnston Publishing Ltd.|accessdate=16 July 2015|date=2 February 2011}}</ref> Her skill in lettering and draughtsmanship brought her to the attention of Jan Tarnowski, director of the Scottish Craft Centre, whose advice and guidance were instrumental in bringing her many commissions. These works attracted widespread recognition. A set of engraved goblets, representing ten of the heraldic Queen's Beasts (comprising the lion of England, the griffin of Edward III, the falcon of the Plantagenets, the black bull of Clarence, the yale of Beaufort, the white lion of Mortimer, the red dragon of Wales, the unicorn of Scotland, and the white horse of Hanover), was presented to Her Majesty the Queen by the High Constables and the Guard of Honour of Holyrood House for the Coronation in 1953.<ref>{{Royal Collection|29060|The Queen’s Beasts|Alison Geissler}}</ref> Several of Geissler's works are in the ownership of the British royal family, and several are in collections, at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, and the Corning Museum of Glass, New York.<ref>{{cite web|title=Penguins|url=http://www.cmog.org/artwork/penguins|website=The Corning Museum of Glass|accessdate=16 July 2015}}</ref>
The identifiability of many of her commissions make them unsuitable for general publication. One such piece, a striking display of her skill, is a crystal glass dish on which the personal signatures of 30 guests attending a private celebration are engraved mirror-wise by copper wheel on the underside of the dish. An exhibition of her work was held in 1983 at Kelvingrove Art Gallery.<ref>Alison Geissler : glass engraver. Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries.(Kelvingrove, Glasgow G3 8AG): © Glasgow Museums & Art Galleries, 1983</ref> In 1991 she was awarded the distinction of MBE for her services to glass engraving. On the occasion of her centenary in 2007, an interview was published in the Newsletters of the Glass Society and of the Edinburgh College of Art.<ref>{{cite journal|title=An Interview with Alison Geissler|journal=Scottish Glass Society Newsletter|date=Summer 2007|pages=6–7|url=http://www.cmog.org/library/interview-alison-geissler|accessdate=16 July 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Celebrating 40 years of volunteers|url=https://scottishglasssociety.com/celebrating-40-years-of-volunteers/|access-date=6 March 2020}}</ref> She maintained her professional glass engraving career until the age of 94. In 2008, at the age of 101, she was awarded the Chairman's Medal of the Edinburgh College of Art, which was founded in the same year as she was born.<ref>{{cite news|title=Oldest graduate's work on display|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7414703.stm|access-date=16 July 2015|work=BBC News|agency=BBC|publisher=BBC|date=22 May 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Davies|first1=Betty|title=Alison Geissler, eca's oldest alumna reflects on the past and present|url=http://www.kirstyeaglesfield.co.uk/files/edinburgh_college_of_art_decades_9.pdf|journal=Decades|date=Autumn–Winter 2008|issue=9|pages=6–7|accessdate=16 July 2015|publisher=Edinburgh College of Art}}</ref>
==Gallery== <gallery> File:Queen'sBeasts1953 copy1.jpg|Three out of 10 goblets engraved by Alison Geissler and presented to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth by the High Constables and the Guard of Honour of Holyrood House for the Coronation in 1953. The wineglasses are part of the Royal Collection. © Studio Swain, Glasgow. File:RSM Glass plate 1.jpeg|Plate engraved for the Centenary of the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh. Courtesy of the National Museum of Scotland. File:HexadecahedralBowl.jpg|Glass bowl engraved with musical instruments on alternate faces and treble clef motif on the base. © Mike Fear File:KelvinGroveMuseum copy.jpg|Wineglass with Russian dancer © CSG CIC Glasgow Museums Collection File:Life of ChristWhite.jpg|Covered goblet engraved with six scenes from the life of Christ, 1982 File:ScottishCraftsCollection1984 white2 copy.jpg|Engraved glass plate, Scottish Craft Collection 1984. © Antonia Reeve <!-- Deleted image removed: thumb|Engraved Decanter, Mary Queen of Scots --> </gallery>
==Distinctions==
1991 Member of the British Empire
2007 Edinburgh College of Art Chairman's Medal
2020 A street in Edinburgh is named in honour of Alison Geissler<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/people/new-edinburgh-street-named-after-prominent-leith-glass-engraver-alison-geissler-3029882|title=New Edinburgh street named after prominent Leith glass engraver Alison Geissler|date=9 November 2020 }}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Geissler, Alison}} Category:1907 births Category:2011 deaths Category:People educated at the Mary Erskine School Category:Alumni of the Edinburgh College of Art Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire Category:Glass engravers Category:20th-century Scottish engravers Category:21st-century Scottish engravers Category:Scottish women engravers Category:Artists from Edinburgh Category:Scottish women centenarians Category:British glass artists Category:Women glass artists