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 linked by Colin Campbell
and it is well recorded that Dresser designed china
for Campbell owned Mintons Ltd. There is no known or
suggested association between Dresser and Minton Hollins
& Co who were the major tile maker of the times.
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 Ltd 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 refers came to light.
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 and even Dresser's own books
and consult 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 very
full and far from his reputation for simplicity and as
such 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 would usually apply 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 part 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 1475 which indicates an
introduction date of around 1875 so the writer is correct
at least in that regard. Unlikely however to have been
manufactured at the date, it remains in the catalogue
until at least 1893.
From the Mintons Ltd catalogue showing 16 no. 4"
x 4" tiles
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 clearly is not a tile design nor was
it designed for Mintons otherwise Dresser would not have
put it in the book or certainly not without so saying the
design made by Mintons. 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 many of those
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, some
landscape tiles were from books.
Does it make a good tile? I don't think so, it is
rather fussy for its proportions and is one of many
designes that simply make an unimposing background. I
wouldn't call it bad, there are other designs that fail
on all counts it is simply an ordinary design of the
times. That is not a criticism of Dresser for it is not
how he intended, at the scale that he suggests it would
be bold and striking and lose the cluttered look it has
on tile. Despite being in the Minton's Ltd tile catalogue
for at the minimum the best part of two decades it is
rarely found in the marketplace, the tile clearly didn't
sell very well.
Reprints of Dresser's book Studies in Design are
available for a few tens of pounds and it is worth
having. Not only does one see a good number of designs by
the master and in glorious colour but one gets a feel of
how he liked to do things.
Mintons Ltd seem to have neglected the tile department
artistically until the arrival of Léon Solon, they
produced a 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 Reynold's 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.
Edited 14 December 2010
