Daniel Cottier was born in Anderston

Anderston

Anderston is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is on the north bank of the River Clyde and extends to the western edge of the city centre...

, Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

, Scotland in January 1837. He apprenticed to a John Cairney & Co glass-stainers in Glasgow and studied under Madox Brown in London in early 1860s. In 1862, he went to work for Field & Allen in Leith as foreman designer, three years later (1865) he opened his own business in Glasgow. Some of his early glass and early experiments in decoration, are in Paisley

Paisley

Paisley is the largest town in the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland and serves as the administrative centre for the Renfrewshire council area...

 and in Aberdeen

Aberdeen

Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....

 particularly in St Machar's Cathedral.

During 1869 he moved to London, opening "Cottier and Co., Art Furniture Makers, Glass and Tile Painters", supplying aesthetic furnishings in the most fashionable styles. In 1873, he opened his New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 house and also opened a branch in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. He was considered to be an important influence on Louis Comfort Tiffany

Louis Comfort Tiffany

Louis Comfort Tiffany was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He is the American artist most associated with the Art Nouveau  and Aesthetic movements...

 and also is credited with introducing the Aesthetic movement to America and Australia. He died of a heart attack at Jacksonville, Florida and is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, New York.

His work was said to be influenced by the writing of John Ruskin

John Ruskin

John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...

, the paintings of the Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, and was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement,...

 and the work of William Morris

William Morris

William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...

. He painted allegorical figures in the Pre-Raphaelite style compared to Rossetti and Sir Edward Burne-Jones.