CHRISTOPHER DRESSER (1834-1904) (PANEL DESIGNER) AESTHETIC MOVEMENT CORNER CABINET, CIRCA 1880
CHRISTOPHER DRESSER (1834-1904) (PANEL DESIGNER) AESTHETIC MOVEMENT CORNER CABINET, CIRCA 1880 ebonised and gilded wood, with a polychrome-painted panel and mirrored glass (70.2cm wide, 120.5cm high, 43cm deep, panel 28.5cm x 43.5cm) Literature: Dresser C. Studies in Design, Cassel Petter & Galpin, London, the plates by A. Goater, Nottingham, 1876, plate II illus. V&A Collection accession no. W.3-2015, for a related hand screen, decorated with an adaptation of the painted design. Note: This cabinet is a rare example of an object decorated after a published design in Dresser’s most important works, Studies in Design of 1876. Plate II shows two owls standing upright and is captioned "Parental advice". Dresser wrote in the caption text that the design ‘may be painted on the panel of a door, on the door of a cabinet, or in any recess in a wall, especially suited to a smoking-room or nursery." Elsewhere in the text he states that “the sense of humour finds expression in grotesque forms. Plates II (etc…) are illustrations”. It may be that this corner cabinet was decorated under Dresser's direction for the Art Furnishers' Alliance Co. The Art Furnisher's Alliance was the association of art manufacturers established by Christopher Dresser (1834-1904) in 1880. The key objective of the alliance was to buy and sell high-class goods of artistic design and to "complete artistic furnishing of a house". George Hayter Chubb was appointed as Chairman, and Dresser was the 'Art Manager' heading designs for furniture, pottery, glass and metal, aided by Holme and Arthur Liberty. In his preface to Studies in Design, Dresser hoped that the work would assist to “bring about a better style of decoration” and “aid the designer and the manufacturer of decorated objects, by suggesting to them useful ideas”. Whether or not the current lot was made directly under his instruction, the panel inset into the door of this cabinet was undoubtedly the sort of effect on a design Dresser envisaged when he published Studies in Design.
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CHRISTOPHER DRESSER (1834-1904) (PANEL DESIGNER) AESTHETIC MOVEMENT CORNER CABINET, CIRCA 1880 ebonised and gilded wood, with a polychrome-painted panel and mirrored glass (70.2cm wide, 120.5cm high, 43cm deep, panel 28.5cm x 43.5cm) Literature: Dresser C. Studies in Design, Cassel Petter & Galpin, London, the plates by A. Goater, Nottingham, 1876, plate II illus. V&A Collection accession no. W.3-2015, for a related hand screen, decorated with an adaptation of the painted design. Note: This cabinet is a rare example of an object decorated after a published design in Dresser’s most important works, Studies in Design of 1876. Plate II shows two owls standing upright and is captioned "Parental advice". Dresser wrote in the caption text that the design ‘may be painted on the panel of a door, on the door of a cabinet, or in any recess in a wall, especially suited to a smoking-room or nursery." Elsewhere in the text he states that “the sense of humour finds expression in grotesque forms. Plates II (etc…) are illustrations”. It may be that this corner cabinet was decorated under Dresser's direction for the Art Furnishers' Alliance Co. The Art Furnisher's Alliance was the association of art manufacturers established by Christopher Dresser (1834-1904) in 1880. The key objective of the alliance was to buy and sell high-class goods of artistic design and to "complete artistic furnishing of a house". George Hayter Chubb was appointed as Chairman, and Dresser was the 'Art Manager' heading designs for furniture, pottery, glass and metal, aided by Holme and Arthur Liberty. In his preface to Studies in Design, Dresser hoped that the work would assist to “bring about a better style of decoration” and “aid the designer and the manufacturer of decorated objects, by suggesting to them useful ideas”. Whether or not the current lot was made directly under his instruction, the panel inset into the door of this cabinet was undoubtedly the sort of effect on a design Dresser envisaged when he published Studies in Design.
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