Product Description
Christopher Dresser / Linthorpe Art Pottery Aesthetic Movement Pitcher 1879-1882

CHRISTOPHER DRESSER (1834-1904) UK
LINTHORPE ART POTTERY, Middlesbrough, England
HENRY TOOTH Artistic Manager Linthorpe (1842-1918) UK
“Flaring Lip” Pitcher 1879-1882
Glazed earthenware
Marks: LINTHORPE, Chr. Dresser (facsimile signature),
HT, no. 346
Illustrated: Christopher Dresser, by Widar Halén (Oxford: Phaidon, 1990), illus. 185, p.163; Truth, Beauty, Power: Dr. Christopher Dresser 1834-1904, exhibition catalogue Historical Design, Inc. (New York, 1998) p. 76.
H: 9 3/4″
The contrasts in Dresser’s designs for different materials showed how his approach to design was also shaped by the properties and nature of a material. In 1879 Dresser was appointed art director at the newly established Linthorpe pottery, near Middlesbrough. Founded by John Harrison, a local businessman, the pottery’s aim was to use local clay to provide jobs for local men. Dresser’s design for the moulds for the pottery were inspired by a wide range of cultures from Japan, Peru, Mexico, Morocco and Ancient British forms. These very striking pieces, with the metal oxides in the complex and innovative glazes providing the only decoration. All of his designs were impressed with a facsimile signature. When Linthorpe closed in 1889, its moulds were acquired by a rival, Ault Pottery in Derbyshire. In 1893, Dresser signed a contract with Ault for new designs specifying that each pot should be marked with his facsimile signature.
Christopher Dresser / Linthorpe Art Pottery Aesthetic Movement Pitcher 1879-1882
EDMOND LACHENAL (1855-1930) Paris, France
Green glazed pitcher / vase form c. 1900
Marks: E LACHENAL (impressed and glazed in a rectangle on base)
For information on Edmond Lachenal see:”Edmond Lachenal”, Fritz Minkus, Kunst und Kunsthandwerk, IV (1901) pp.390-98; La Céramique Art Nouveau, Edgar Pelichet and Michèle Duperrex (Lausanne: Les Éditions du Grand-Pont, Switzerland, 1976) pp. 66,71,74,78,83,112,115; “l’Atelier Lachenal à la galerie Georges Petit “ in Les Echoes d’Art” (1933), p. Vll; Art Nouveau: Belgium & France, exh. cat. Yvonne Brunhammer et al. (Houston, TX: Institute for the the Arts, Rice University, 1976), p. 48; Le Japonisme (Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1988) cat no. 377, p. 321; Japonisme: the Japanese influence on western art in the 19th and 20th Centuries, Siegfried Wichmann (Parklane: New York, 1980) pp. 339, 349; cat. no. 920.
H: 9″ x W: 6 3/4″
CHRISTOPHER DRESSER (1834-1904) UK
LINTHORPE ART POTTERY, Middlesbrough
HENRY TOOTH Artistic Manager Linthorpe (1842-1918) UK
“Persian” jug 1879-1882
Glazed earthenware
Marks: LINTHORPE, Chr. Dresser (facsimile signature),
HT, no. 344
Illustrated: Truth, Beauty, Power: Dr. Christopher Dresser 1834-1904, exhibition catalogue Historical Design, Inc. (New York, 1998) p. 76.
H: 8 3/4″
Rare model.
The contrasts in Dresser’s designs for different materials showed how his approach to design was also shaped by the properties and nature of a material. In 1879 Dresser was appointed art director at the newly established Linthorpe pottery, near Middlesbrough. Founded by John Harrison, a local businessman, the pottery’s aim was to use local clay to provide jobs for local men. Dresser’s design for the moulds for the pottery were inspired by a wide range of cultures from Japan, Peru, Mexico, Morocco and Ancient British forms. These very striking pieces, with the metal oxides in the complex and innovative glazes providing the only decoration. All of his designs were impressed with a facsimile signature. When Linthorpe closed in 1889, its moulds were acquired by a rival, Ault Pottery in Derbyshire. In 1893, Dresser signed a contract with Ault for new designs specifying that each pot should be marked with his facsimile signature.
CHRISTOPHER DRESSER (1834-1904) UK
JAMES DIXON & SONS Sheffield, England
“Gothic Arch” toast rack c.1881
Silver-plate
Marks: JD&S (stamped), EP, #72, “D”
Drawing illustrated: Christopher Dresser’s 1881 design and account book
For more information see: Truth, Beauty, Power: Dr. Christopher Dresser 1834-1904, exhib. cat. Historical Design, Inc. (New York, 1998); Charles Handley-Read, “High Victorian Design: An Illustrated Commentary” in ‘Design 1860-1960’ sixth conference report of the Victorian Society (London, 1968); Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Art: The Handley-Read Collection, ed. Simon Jervis (London: Diploma Galleries,1972); Christopher Dresser: pottery, glass, metalwork, (London: The Fine Arts Society Ltd., 1972); Isabelle Anscombe & Charlotte Gere, Arts & Crafts in Britain and America (New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1978); Truth, Beauty and Design, Victorian, Edwardian and later Decorative Art (London: Fischer Fine Art Limited),; A Thing of Beauty: Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Arts & Crafts Movement and Aesthetic Movement Objects in Atlanta Collections (Atlanta, GA: The High Museum of Art, 1980), cat. no. M2; Widar Halén, Christopher Dresser (Oxford: Phaidon, 1990),; Judy Rudoe, Decorative Arts 1850-1950: A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection (London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1991),; Gerda Breuer, Von Morris bis Mackintosh – Reformbewegung zwischen Kunstgewerbe und Sozialutopie, Arts and Crafts (Darmstadt: Institut Mathildenhöhe, 1994/95); “The Silver Designs of Dr. Christopher Dresser,” Shirley Bury, Apollo (December, 1962)
H: 6″ x D: 4 1/8″ x W: 4 5/8″
WOLFGANG GESSL (b. 1949) Austria
Arc pitcher – unique 1990
Hand wrought silver in a rounded arching form with a cylindrical luminous yellow-green acrylic handle
Marks: Wolfgang Gessl (script impressed signature), WO.GE (in a rectangle), Swedish assay mark for Stockholm, 925 (silver guarantee in a rectangle), Q10 (in a rectangle)
Illustrated: Gold and Silversmith Wolfgang Gessl: Exceeding Geometry, Kerstin Wickman, p. 17, cover.
H: 13 1/2″ x W: 10 ¼” x D: 4 ½”
Price: $27,500
Wolfgang Gessl was born in 1949 in Vienna, Austria and trained as a goldsmith with Professor Hans Angerbauer. Upon moving to Sweden, Gessl studied under the eminent silversmith Sigurd Persson at Konstfack, the National University of Art, Craft and Design in Stockholm, Sweden.
Wolfgang Gessl has had fifteen solo exhibitions including shows at The National Museum, Stockholm and The Royal College of Art in London. His metalwork has been widely exhibited in Sweden, Europe and the U.S and his pieces can be found in many private collections throughout the world. He has taught at Konstfack for more than twenty-four years, and continues to live and work in Stockholm.