Exhibition Guide
Jardinière
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Looking at a Botanical Design
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About Designer: Christopher Dresser
(English, 1834-1904)Art Object Info
With his 1862 publication of The Art of Decorative Design, Christopher Dresser established himself as an innovative designer of ornament. He went on to serve multiple British firms as the first modern product designer. At the end of his long career, Dresser could look back upon original designs for carpets, ceramics, furniture, glassware, lace, linoleum, metalwork in wrought and cast iron, silver and plate, textiles, and wallpapers.
One of three known examples, this spectacular jardinière (ornamental flowerpot) was produced by Minton & Co., one of his most upscale clients. Dresser’s original drawings, one dated 1867, survive in Minton’s archives. The stylized plants indicate Dresser’s interest in botany as a basis for ornamentation. From Asia, he borrowed the exotic scarabs and flat patterning. The turquoise glaze reproduces “Bleu Celeste,” featured on 18th-century Sèvres porcelains prized by the French, Britain’s greatest trading rival.
Dresser studied at London’s Schools of Design—an institution dedicated to making British decorative arts competitive for the industrial age. The schools were intimately linked to the founding of the South Kensington Museum (later, the Victoria and Albert), a model for American public museums in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Dresser was also a tastemaker, writing popular guides to the world’s fairs in London, Paris, and Vienna and lecturing on museums and design at the Philadelphia Centennial in 1876.
Jardinière
With his 1862 publication of The Art of Decorative Design, Christopher Dresser established himself as an innovative designer of ornament. He went on to serve multiple British firms as the first modern product designer. At the end of his long career, Dresser could look back upon original designs for carpets, ceramics, furniture, glassware, lace, linoleum, metalwork in wrought and cast iron, silver and plate, textiles, and wallpapers.
One of three known examples, this spectacular jardinière (ornamental flowerpot) was produced by Minton & Co., one of his most upscale clients. Dresser’s original drawings, one dated 1867, survive in Minton’s archives. The stylized plants indicate Dresser’s interest in botany as a basis for ornamentation. From Asia, he borrowed the exotic scarabs and flat patterning. The turquoise glaze reproduces “Bleu Celeste,” featured on 18th-century Sèvres porcelains prized by the French, Britain’s greatest trading rival.
Dresser studied at London’s Schools of Design—an institution dedicated to making British decorative arts competitive for the industrial age. The schools were intimately linked to the founding of the South Kensington Museum (later, the Victoria and Albert), a model for American public museums in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Dresser was also a tastemaker, writing popular guides to the world’s fairs in London, Paris, and Vienna and lecturing on museums and design at the Philadelphia Centennial in 1876.