Emma Smith Gillies (1900–1936) was a Scottish potter best known for her early adaptation of Art Deco painted vases and jugs.
[3] There she studied under the tutelage of renowned sculptor and Head of School Alexander Carrick until her graduation in 1932 where, in her last semester, she took part in an Exhibition of Metalwork and Pottery "at 5 Ramsay Lane [in] Edinburgh" published in the Edinburgh newspaper The Scotsman on 3 December of that year.
[4] Not a week later, the same publication announced that Gillies had been awarded a one-hundred pound Travelling Scholarship to the London Royal College of Art.
[5] The following academic semester, Emma Gillies attended the Royal College of Art in London under William Staite Murray, one of the foremost Scottish potters of the 20th century.
[6] However, Gillies was unable to finish her studies in London due to poor health which forced her to return home after completing only a year.