The Magazine Antiques

The table is set with an array of ceramics designed by Dresser for Minton and Company, one of the first manufacturers to recognize his genius and commission work from him. While Dresser would have been aware of the cloisonné designs published by Owen Jones (1809-1874), whom he greatly admired, his own designs incorporated abstract plant motifs reflecting his botanical training (see Fig. 2). Together, Dresser's designs and Minton's unrivaled technical prowess led to the creation of some of the most striking and original ceramics produced in England in the nineteenth century, and cloisonné items similar to those in this collection were exhibited and much admired at the major international exhibitions of the day—Paris (1867), Vienna (1873), and Philadelphia (1876).

On the built-in sideboard and lower shelves along one wall, also designed by Kracauer, the Laroses display a marvelous collection of metalwork produced to Dresser's designs in the 1870s and 1880s. "Dresser was designing items for people to live with," Janet reiterates as we look at the array of tureens and a rare oak and electroplate sugar bowl and sifter (see Fig. 7). "And he was choosy about manufacturers," Larry adds. "Whether he was designing coal scuttles or cruets, he wanted them to be well made as well as affordable." A row of beautifully manufactured toast racks, their bold geometry much in advance of their time, bears out these comments (see Fig. 5), as does one of Dresser's most daring designs-a hemispherical electroplate teapot skillfully fashioned by James Dixon and Sons of Sheffield (see Fig. 8). Discussing the use of silver for teapots, Dresser mused, "So long as we value the material rather than the art, and insist upon purchasing art objects by the ounce, we can never attain to true knowledge. Whoever heard of music being dealt out in measured quantities. Fancy paying for an oratorio by the length of time taken up in its recital, or purchasing a picture by the yard!"6

In fact, while most of the objects made to Dresser's designs were of inexpensive materials, they very often transcend their material, like the Clutha glass he designed for Liberty and Company. And the rare hangings made by James Templeton and Company about 1873 in the Laroses' dining room remind us that the vast majority of designs emanating from his studio were for ephemeral textiles and wallpaper (see Fig. 3).

If Dresser's approach to design was ahead of its time, so too was his attitude toward the cultural sources that fueled his imagination; his interest in Japan led him to visit that country from 1876 to 1877, travels he described in Japan: Its Architecture, Art, and Art Manufactures (1882). One of his most overtly Japanese designs in this collection—or indeed anywhere—is a relief molded plate made by the Linthorpe Art Pottery in Middlesbrough about 1879 (Fig. 9). The low-relief design in the center is an accurate copy of that on the reverse of a cast-bronze mirror,7 possibly Edo period, that must have been part of Dresser's own collection. "The great charm in Japanese metal work," he wrote, "consists in the variety and delicacy, the poetical feeling, and at the same time the boldness, displayed in it."8 These qualities are certainly reflected in this plate with its bold Japanese inscription, takasago (meaning "dune").9

Significantly, on the left side of the Linthorpe plate, Dresser retained the signature of the mirror maker: one legacy of his experiences in Japan, where designers and craftsmen enjoyed a higher status than in the West, was his increasing stipulation that products made to his designs bear his name. "Dresser had a canny business sense when negotiating with manufacturers," notes Larry. "He kept control over them and insisted, for example through contractual arrangements, on what today we would term ‘branding.'" But while Dresser may have been a self-publicist, he was not an egomaniac; as Larry observes, "Dresser did not write about himself—he wrote about his passions" (see Fig. 11). Acknowledging the support he received from his family (several of his daughters assisted him in his studio and in preparing the designs for his book Modern Ornamentation), he wrote in the preface to Japan: "their willing assistance was of great value to me." Among the Laroses' collection of original editions of Dresser's publications is a copy of Modern Ornamentation inscribed to his second daughter, Thirza, "from her affectionate father" (see Fig. 10).

The breadth of the Larose collection clearly shows Dresser to have been a man of imagination, determination, perseverance, and skill, who originated some of the most innovative designs of the nineteenth century. At the same time the collection also charts the journey the Laroses have taken in assembling it, and their pleasure in doing so. At a recent dinner party the entire meal—down to the crème anglaise in a cloisonné sauceboat—was served on or from Dresser objects. As a guest, I must admit I felt a trifle awestruck, but then I remembered something Larry had once said to me: "This room was built with the sole purpose of bringing Dresser home." I glanced up at the stars in the oculus above, and realized how much at home he would have felt.

1 Stuart Durant, Christopher Dresser (Academy Editions, London, and Ernst und Sohn, Berlin, 1993).  2 New York Times, May 6, 1877, quoted in Widar Halén, Christopher Dresser (Phaidon-Christie's, Oxford, 1990), p. 41; and Alan Victor Sugden, recalling Dresser in the 1890s, quoted in Durant, Christopher Dresser, p. 39.  3 I am grateful to Aileen Ribeiro for her comments relating to Dresser's attire.  4 British Mercantile Gazette, quoted in Halén, Christopher Dresser, p. 76.  5 Christopher Dresser, The Decoration of Ceilings (London, 1868), Doctrine 21. 6 Christopher Dresser, Japan: Its Architecture, Art, and Art Manufactures (London, 1882), p. 430.  7 I am grateful to Max Rutherston for identifying the origin of this design.  8 Dresser, Japan, p. 427.  9 I am grateful to Mariko Whiteway for translating the inscription.

MAX DONNELLY is a specialist in decorative arts at the Fine Art Society, London.

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