Dr Christopher Dresser (1934-1904)

 Born in Glasgow in 1834 he went on to study at the government School of Design, Somerset House. He lectured at the school before lecturing at the department of Science and Art at South Kensington, sepecializing in Botany. He supplied the plate showing the geometric arrangment of flowers in Owen Jones' 1856 Grammer of Ornament. He extensivly lectured and wrote papers on botany and gained a doctorate from the University of Jena in 1860.

By 1862 he had established a studio of pupils in Chiswick and supplied a number of designs for the London Interational Exhibition. Ceramics for Minton and Wedgwood, and carpets for Brinton's were shown at Paris in 1867. Metal for Coalbrookdale at London in 1871 and designs for elevan wallpaper companies exhibited at Paris in 1878. In 1876 He visited the Philadelphia Exhibition on his way to Japan at the invitation of the Japanese Government, to report on their art industries. whilst their he acted as a buying agent for Londos & Co and Tiffany & Co.

Chair produced by Chubb & Son for the Art Furnishers Alliance, circa 1880. Chubb & Son Archive London.

In 1879 he established Dresser & Holme importing Oriental Goods, and Linthorpe Pottery, for which he supplied many radical new designs. In the same year his metalwork designs for Hukin & Heath were first seen and he supplied designs for James Dixon & Sons and Elkington reflecting a Japanese influence. He established the Art Furnishers Alliance in 1880 and worked as the editor of the Furniture gazette in 1881. Japan, its Architecture, Art and Art Manufaturers was published in 1882 and 1883 saw the collapse of the Alliance. In all he supplied designs to over Fifty companies in the Uk and across the world, and was anonymously described in 1899 as 'perhaps the greatest of commercial designers'.

Widar Halén, Christopher Dresser, 1990
Edited by Michael Whiteway, Christopher Dresser Design Revolution, 2004
Michael Whiteway, Christpher Dresser 1834-1904, 2001 
Christopher Dresser, Principles of Decorative Design, 1873
Michael Whiteway and Charlotte Gere, Nineteenth Century Design, 1993