wood-carver and potter, with sister Alice Bott were leading figures in Brisbane’s Arts and Crafts movement earlier this century. Both were born in Brisbane where their father, William Bott, was an engineer. Sarah studied at the Brisbane Technical College and was awarded an Associate Diploma in 1898. She exhibited carving and modelling with the Queensland National Agricultural and Industrial Association (QNAIA) from 1898 to 1909 and carvings and watercolours with the Royal Agricultural Society of Queensland at Toowoomba in 1904-07. She had two woodcarvings in the 1907 Women’s Work Exhibition in Melbourne: a chest of drawers in silky oak and a pair of frames in stained beech.

Nothing is known of Alice Bott’s early career except that she received a first prize for woodcarving at Toowoomba in 1900 and exhibited oil paintings of flowers with the QNAIA in 1915. She may have been taught by Sarah. Both sisters’ careers remained obscure until 1923, when they advertised in Brisbane as 'The Birtle Art Work Company’, offering hand-made pottery, babies’ woollen goods and 'dainty novelties’ along with classes in oil and pastel painting, art needlework and sweet-making.

By then Sarah was studying pottery with L. J. Harvey , becoming one of his most dedicated students. She exhibited her pottery with the QNAIA and, later, with the Royal National Association (1923-32); she showed pottery, china painting and wood-carving with the Arts and Crafts Society of Queensland (1929-41) and pottery with the Royal Queensland Art Society (1932-38). Alice exhibited china painting and lesser quantities of pottery, woodcarvings and woollen rugs with the Arts and Crafts Society in 1924-46 and similar items with the Royal Queensland Art Society in 1932-36.

Sarah was the more accomplished artist but Alice was a more prominent figure in the local arts community, serving on the committee the Arts and Crafts Society and teaching pottery and china painting at their studio as well as to the Queensland Country Women’s Association Younger Group and the Young Women’s Christian Association. Since Sarah was a large woman and Alice quite diminutive, their affectionate nicknames were 'Big Bott’ and 'Little Bott’.

Writers:

Cooke, Glenn R.

Date written:

1995

Last updated:

1992