Christopher Dresser: not my great-grandmother's Victorian
See this tea set?
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Teapot and Creamer, Christopher Dresser c. 1880 Manufactured by James Dixon and Sons |
What 12 months would you watched that changed into made? How about this one?
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Teapot, Christopher Dresser c. 1880 Manufactured by James Dixon and Sons |
Both of those objects date to around 1880 and they were designed by Christopher Dresser, a man regarded as the world's first, independent industrial designer. I saw both at a retrospective of Dresser's work back in 2004 at the Cooper Hewitt in New York. The museum displayed a collection of Dresser's creations in an exhibit called The Shock of the Old . The exhibit then moved on to London's Victoria and Albert Museum where it was called Christopher Dresser: A Design Revolution .
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Vase, Christopher Dresser c. 1880 Linthorpe Art Pottery, Yorkshire |
I become reminded of that exhibit due to the fact I'm running on a post with the marketing oldsters at MOMA on show off they have got arising approximately modernist kitchens within the early 20th Century. That's coming next week, but I need to stay on Mr. Dresser here nowadays.
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Toast Rack, Christopher Dresser c. 1880 Manufactured by James Dixon and Sons |
Prior to seeing those teapots at the Cooper Hewitt, I'd always though that modernism was strictly a twentieth century impulse but as you could see from Dresser's paintings here, modernism's roots dig well into the 19th Century. So despite the fact that the conventional know-how holds that household items from one hundred thirty years in the past did not seem like this:
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Decanter, Christopher Dresser c. 1879 Manufactured by James Dixon and Sons |
Dresser's recognition on the time indicates that the Rococo mishmash of ornamentation that most people consider when they suppose Victorian wasn't commonplace.
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Footed bowl, Christopher Dresser c. 1885 Manufactured by Elkington and Company |
Dresser become an commercial dressmaker, his paintings became meant to be mass produced and to sell. Of course a number of his initiatives were greater traditional of the time. But what pursuits me about him are his tasks that sit up for a new generation all together.
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Decanter, Christopher Dresser c. 1879 Manufactured by Hukin and Heath |
He was from all accounts an interesting man. He was a botanist by trade and was awarded his doctorate before he traded in his study of plants for the study and creation of objects. It was through his observations of the economy of plant design that he started to rethink the decorative arts. A trip to Japan in 1876 altered his views on ornament permanently. His willingness to look to the forms of other cultures, notably Japanese and Arabian, and to integrate them into his work spawned the wide acceptance of these forms and styles.
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Toast Rack, Christopher Dresser c. 1881 Manufactured by Hukin and Heath |
Like lots of his contemporaries, Dresser became involved in the movement to reform layout. Remember that the later 19th Century was a time of wonderful reform actions. The wealth generated by means of the economic revolution spawned a category of individuals who had been decided to reform and reinvent their complete society. Design reform turned into of a bit with sanitary reform, prison reform, workplace reform, etc. The Victorians reformers were going to enhance the lot of everybody. Design reform become an attempt to mass produce tasteful objects for the middle and decrease lessons. Dresser's unadorned gadgets were now not simplest new, they were much less-pricey to supply and his sensibilities in shape the time when he lived to a T.
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Chair, Christopher Dresser c. 1880 Manufactured by Chubb and Company for the Art Furnishers' Alliance |
Christopher Dresser was a household name in England by the time he died in 1904, I don't think it's a stretch to say he was the 19th Century's Philippe Starck. He was a fascinating man and you can read more of Dresser's biography on the British Design Museum's website .
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Tureen, Christopher Dresser c. 1880 Manufactured by Hukin and Heath |
I'm antique enough to have had a brilliant-grandmother who become keeping residence at the time whilst Dresser became plying his trade. I surprise what she could have idea of his tackle their times, the Victorian Era?
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Fan, Christopher Dresser c. 1880 for the Art Furnishers' Alliance |