Product Description
Christopher Dresser / Linthorpe, Rare Aesthetic Movement “Persian” jug 1879
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 / Linthorpe, Rare Aesthetic Movement “Persian” jug 1879
PAUL HAUSTEIN (1880-1944) Germany
HERMANN BEHRND (b. 1849) SILBERWARENFABRIK (silver) Dresden, Germany
JAKAB RAPOPORT (enamelist) Budapest, Hungary
Inkwell c. 1900
Multicolored burgundy, purple, blue and green enamel with silver mounts, glass insert
Marks: Moon, crown, 800, HB (Hermann Behrnd mark)
Same model with variant mount illustrated: Deutsche Goldschmiede-Zeitung, n.d. (circa 1903-05), p. 23
For related works and more information see: Art Nouveau in Munich: Masters of Jugendstil, ed. Kathryn Bloom Hiesinger (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1988) pp. 67-69; Jugendstil in Dresden, Aufbruch in die Moderne, Gisela Haase et al., exh. cat. (Dresden: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden; Wolfratshausen: Edition Minerva, 1999).
Dia: 7 1/4″ x H: 4 1/2″
MELLERIO PARIS Italy/ France
Gyroscope cigarette box c.1930
French silver (950 silver standard) in a structural form of a gyroscope with a lever for an interior lifting mechanism, gilding
Marks: Mellerio Paris, 3776 D, head of Minerva French guarantee mark for 950/1000
H: 5 1/4″ x Dia: 4 1/4″
The renowned Mellerio family and their jewelry can be traced back to Lombardy, Italy as early as the 16th century. Some family members moved to Paris and became royal jewelers for Louis XIII. The revolutions of 1789 and 1848 interrupted their business and they moved to Madrid where they became the jewelers favored by Queen Isabel II. Later in the 19th century they returned to Paris where once again they prospered and participated in several international expositions including London (1862), Paris (1867, 1878 and 1900), and Vienna (1873). In the 20th century they exhibited at the renowned Paris 1925 Exposition des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and then in New York at the 1939 World’s Fair.