A keen eyed researcher has informed me that he has
seen a copy of Llewellynn Jewitt's The Ceramic Art of
Great Britain that states that a "Dr
Dresser" designed for Minton the reference
apparently referring to tiles as associated names
mentioned E. Welby Pugin, John Gibbs, and J. Seddon are
architects. These names are not mentioned in my copy
of Jewitt. The revised edition of Jewitt with these names
is ISBN 9781443787222 published in 2008, my also
revised edition is ISBN 1850790337 dated 1985. I am
further advised that Dresser is not named in the
original.
E. Welby Pugin is the son of the A. W. N. Pugin who
designed tiles for Minton & Co and continued his
father's architectural practice. Gibbs (no
forename or initial) is recorded as designing tiles
for Craven Dunnill by Jewitt, Seddon both Maw and William
Godwin by Austwick.
Terry Lockett on page 211 states, "The Campbell Tile
Company pricelist claimed "a pattern book and designs by
Pugin, Seddon, Gibbs, Dresser and others, sent by
post on application to the manufactory."" He comments,
"many of the abstract and geometric patterns obviously
had a distinguished designer, but it is seldom that
these can be attributed." Harry Lyons on page 108
reports, "J. F. Blacker records Dresser as a designer of
'tessallated pavements' for Minton Taylor". Mintons
Ltd and Robert Minton Taylor & Co which became
Campbell Tile Co. are of course connected by Colin
Campbell and it is well recorded that Dresser
designed china for Minton & Co.. There is no known or
suggested association between Dresser and Minton, Hollins
& Co. who was the major tile maker of the times and
the only tile maker entitled to use the name Minton &
Co..
Pavements are not tiles but they are certainly
architectural so could perhaps give some credence to the
Dresser designed tiles hypothesis. The language used
is 'designs by' rather than 'designed by', this is
marketing text and a definitive statement is absent. A
price list is hardly a substantial document, easily
replaced if Dresser was aware of its existence and
bothered to protest should he feel wronged. Otherwise one
can ask if Dresser was considered prestigious enough
to be mentioned by name in the Campbell price list why
not in the Mintons tile catalogue?
With two references to Dresser and pavement
designs his direct involvement can not be immediately
dismissed however it seems probable if not likely that
Blacker also got his reference from the same source, the
pricelist. It would be great if a copy of the catalogue
to which it may refer came to light should such a
catalogue have existed.
J. F. Blacker wrote a number of books, an
advertisement has been found including four titles by
him, books on japanese art and indian art
from architecture to jewellery and on collecting
english china and continental pottery. This breadth of
subject matter suggests that Blacker was a
professional author rather than an expert in any
particular field, I doubt the list is exhaustive. They
appear to have been first published in the early 20th
century.
Books by J F Blacker:
The ABC of Indian Art
The ABC of Japanese Art
The ABC of Collecting Old Continental Pottery
The ABC of Collecting Old English China
The reputation of Christopher Dresser's design work
has grown dramatically in the last decade or so such that
very many designs are attributed to him without any
verification. Many sellers do try, consult auction
catalogues, books about him those more knowledgable than
themselves. With such an interest in Dresser there are
many people who have studied his work and could possibly
profess to be experts in his known designs the majority
of those recorded being in pottery and metalware and
which are illustrated in books, displayed in museums and
appear in the marketplace and salerooms. There can be no
experts on Christopher Dresser tiles because there is no
record of him designing any.
Should any verified examples arise one may consider
the possibility that a particular tile was designed by
Dresser otherwise it should be assumed that it is a copy,
either a literal copy from a book, fabric etc or an
adaptation. Until sufficient verified examples are known
to get a feeling of how he would approach the different
medium the best one may say is "in the style of
Dresser" or "typical Dresser motifs", as used
by Harry Lyons. Typical Dresser motifs is actually an
excellent phrase and there are plenty of them for as his
reputation grew his typical motifs would inevitably be
copied and plagarised by other artists and designers. Any
manufacturer or indeed designer seeing a popular product
from another is likely to try to emulate that success by
making similar products. Likewise Dresser was influenced
by other designs and other designers would have
independently made similar without reference to Dresser's
work.
Another excellent comment is that by the writer for
the National Archives who wrote thus. "This design is
similar to those of Dr Christopher Dresser but no firm
attribution to this designer has been established.
[...] Much work has still to be done to
distinguish between Dresser's personal work and that of
anonymous designers trained by Dresser or inspired by his
work."
It should be noted that Dresser is most noted for, and
I would suggest his greatest contribution is, shapes of
objects, three dimensional design rather than two
dimensional. His two dimensional designs are for the most
part in the manner of the times and draw upon historical
sources so are impossible to formally attribute without
verification. Some of his designs are such that one would
never associate them with him had there been a lack of
documentary evidence, some of his gothic designs are
indistinguishable from those of his contemporaries. When
a pattern appears on a known Dresser shape such as a jug
it does not mean that he also designed the pattern which
was often printed, manufacturers frequently applied
different patterns to the same shapes and the same
patterns to different shapes.
One sees descriptions of tiles rather like this:
"Absolutely terrific printed floral geometric 8" tile,
designed by Dr Christopher Dresser and manufactured by
Mintons in 1875. This particular design is illustrated in
Dressers (sic) Studies in Design."
Studies in Design Plate XXIII
The design, or rather a half of it, is shown in
Studies in Design plate XXIII, the description is, "Greek
ornaments, suitable for dados; but they require enlarging
considerably". The design measures five inches so the
increase to eight can not be called considerable, to my
eye and given the intent fifteen to eighteen inches would
be appropriate. As a design for dado it is meant to fill
the area between the dado rail and the skirting boards
(Dresser uses the phrase dado rail when such is the
intent and considerably larger is too large for a dado
rail) those familiar with original period properties will
be aware of the proportions reserved for such usage. It
appears in the Mintons catalogue as pattern numbers 1472
and in different colourway as 1474 which indicate an
introduction date of around 1875 so the writer is correct
at least in that regard. It is unlikely however to have
been manufactured at the date for it remains in the
catalogue until at least 1893.
From the Mintons catalogue showing 16 no. 4" x
4" tiles and 4 no. 8" x 8" tiles
A different colourway 8" x 8" tile introduced in 1890
by Mintons Ltd
So it is not a tile designed by Christopher Dresser it
is a tile bearing a design by Christopher Dresser and not
as he intended. It is unlikely that was it designed for
Mintons otherwise Dresser would surely have said so. Many
Mintons designs can be identified as originating in books
even some that they registered, all of the known
designers works to my knowledge are those for picture
series even if many of them appear to be intended for
tableware being circular. Pugin designs were taken from
Minton & Co.'s tile department Minton, Hollins &
Co. or from his books, many landscape tiles were taken
directly from books.
Reprints of Dresser's books Studies in Design and
Principles of Decorative Design are available for a few
tens of pounds and they are worth having. Not only does
one see a good number of designs by the master and often
in glorious colour but one gets a sense of how he liked
to do things.
Mintons seem to have neglected the tile department
artistically until the arrival of Léon Solon, they
produced a relatively small range of designs most of
which can be attributed elsewhere. The block printing is
often excellent perhaps as they gained the services of
the patentee Ajfred Reynolds from Minton Hollins but the
litho printing often does not match that of its peers.
They did however produce some excellent tiles decorated
in the china department and then later around 1900 in
majolica under the guidance of Léon Solon.
Tiles Designed by Dr
Christopher Dresser?
Tiles and Dr.
Dresser's Principles of Decorative Design
Edited 16 May 2014