ASPECTS OF BRITISH DESIGN 1870 - 1930 || W. A. S. Benson: a Pioneer Designer of Light Fittings

The Decorative Arts Society 1850 to the Present

W. A. S. Benson: a Pioneer Designer of Light FittingsAuthor(s): Peter RoseSource: The Journal of the Decorative Arts Society 1850 - the Present, No. 9, ASPECTS OFBRITISH DESIGN 1870 - 1930 (1985), pp. 50-57Published by: The Decorative Arts Society 1850 to the PresentStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41809145 .

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W. A. S. Benson: a Pioneer Designer of Light Fittings

by Peter Rose

W. A. S. Benson's role both as an innovatory designer and as a precursor of modern attitudes to designing in an industrial setting, has not yet been fully acknowledged. There was, however, no lack of recog- nition in his own lifetime. Indeed, Benson's success came remarkably quickly for, within a decade of the marketing of his first oil and gas light fittings, his designs were being widely pirated. Contemporary critical comment recognised his progressive stance and admired those very same qualities of design of which present day opinion approves. Recent neglect of Benson can only be explained within the general context of the extreme and irrational hostility to all things Victorian and Edwardian which permeated critical writing between the wars and, indeed, continued to do so well into the 1960s. Even Pevsner in 'Pioneers of Modern Design', first published in 1936, makes only one passing reference to Benson as a disciple of Morris, although he devotes considerable space to a well deserved eulogy on the metal designs of Christopher Dresser.1 As late as the 1960s when the Sussex volume of the 'Buildings of England' was published, 'Windleshaw', the country house designed by Benson for his own use and which was built by Morris & Co.,2 is entirely omitted. It remains unlisted and virtually unknown.

A major opportunity to re-evaluate Benson was offered in 1981 when a display of Benson metalwork was held by Michael Whiteway and Paul Reeves of Church Street, Kensington. The exhibition was accompanied by an illustrated catalogue with an introduction by Michael Collins, Assistant Keeper, Medieval and later Antiquities at the British Museum, which provided a refreshingly sympathetic and comprehensive account of Benson's career.3

William Arthur Smith Benson was born in October 1854. His three forenames derive from his maternal uncle who, somewhat prophetically as it turned out, was the same uncle who first introduced the boy to the delights of using lathes and other machinery. His father was a prosperous but not over zealous barrister turned local magistrate who could afford to give his offspring a good general education. His mother had artistic leanings, was a disciple of Ruskin and admirer of the Pre-Raphaelites. All their children had successful, even distinguished, careers. Agnes, a noted beauty, admired by Burne-Jones, married a close friend of William, the designer George Hey wood Sumner; Francis (Sir Frank) became the leading actor-manager of his day ; and Godfrey achieved fame in the political field and became Baron Charnwood in 1911. There was, however, no family connection with that other distinguished Benson dynasty: Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury whose eccentric progeny remain very much in the public eye (notably E. F. Benson, author of the 'Lucia' novels). William was first educated at Darch's preparatory school in Brighton, followed in 1868 by studies at Winchester College. He had a happy childhood although he was considered delicate and was suscepti- ble to headaches ; the kind which would now be called psychosomatic. He was already fascinated by the way machines were made and worked, particularly all that pertained to ships and the sea. His family had moved to Alresford, a short distance from Winchester, then as now a handsome market town set in verdant Hampshire meadows, watercress beds and trout streams. From there he paid frequent visits to his uncle William Arthur Smith, amateur craftsman and scientist, at Colebrook Park near Tonbridge. At the age of 20, his educational progress having been somewhat delayed by illness, he entered New College, Oxford, where he read Classics and Philosophy. Enthusiasm for his studies prog- ressively decreased and he complained of headaches caused by uncongenial translation exercises from the Greek. He attended Ruskin's lectures and observed him at the Hinksey diggings 'with his coat off, trying with small appearances of success to break stone'.4 His tutors noted his devotion to Morris and the Arts and Crafts revival, although he identified with the artistic rather than the political aspects of the movement. He was described as having a 'gracious, dreamy manner'5 and charmed fellow students and tutors alike with his friendly ways. It came as a surprise to everyone when he abandoned his studies and joined the office of Basil Champneys, an architect of literary as well as visual sensitivity much employed by the University on college buildings and adaptations. In a letter to his parents dated 2nd May 1876,

6 Benson tells them for the first time of his decision and ambition : 'really for a long time . . . Architecture has been one of my most constant day-dreams,' being the profession where two constant pre-occupations, art and engineering, coalesce. Halsey Ricardo, later to be closely linked with William de Morgan, was articled

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to Champneys immediately before him, and helped form a further link with the Arts and Crafts Move- ment. It was in this milieu that Benson's close friendship with Edward Burne-Jones, and his association with William Morris, began.

Benson possessed great charm, grace and a striking attractive personal appearance Then, as now, such qualities bestow substantial social advantages on male and female alike. Through a chance encounter at a concert conducted by Richard Wagner, Burne-Jones was attracted first by the beauty of Benson's sister and then subsequently by her brother's handsome features. Benson agreed to model for the artist, posing for the head of the sculptor in the series of paintings which Burne-Jones carried out on the theme of Pygmalion. In 'King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid' not only did he model for the king but he also designed and made the crown held in the hands of the young monarch. Indeed, designing armour for the Perseus series, which Burne-jones deliberately wished to set out of historical period, is likely to have fired Benson with the ambition to fashion metal shapes in more utilitarian ways. The male physical type favoured by Burne-Jones in his paintings of the seventies and eighties closely resem- bles Benson as a young man, and it may well be the case that he posed for the Perseus series as well. The close friendship with Burne-Jones was life-long; they corresponded frequently and it was to that artist that Benson owed his first substantial architectural commission when North End House, the home of Burne-Jones in Rottingdean, was converted and enlarged.

Friendship within the circle of Burne-Jones and in particular with William Morris and the 'eloquent series of lectures in which he declares the place of the arts in the many-sided life of man',7 convinced Benson that he would shape his own career not with architecture as a whole but 'with one or two of the included minor arts, namely, those concerned with the production of furniture and fittings of wood and metal.'8

By 1880 he had established a workshop in Fulham and within two years had expanded his activities sufficiently to move to larger premises in Chiswick Mall. In 1883 (at the age of 29) Benson published an illustrated booklet Notes on some of the Minor Arts. It expresses the underlying design principles evi- dent in Benson designs. These are: simple honesty of purpose, sound construction and good workman- ship, rejection of eclecticism, or, conversely, avoidance of originality for its own sake.

The 'purpose being to call attention to my own attempts to improve these arts, and produce work con- sistent and original in style, of shapely form, and carefully designed for convenience of use. For, seeing the chaos that has prevailed in such things, I have set myself to work steadily through the whole range of necessary furniture and fittings, hoping that by this same steadiness of purpose and by constantly fre- quenting the workshops, to avoid the capricious eclecticism and overmuch straining after effect which are besetting sins of a draughtsman.'9

He describes a room with simple white walls and woodwork, plain oak furniture with blue print curtains and coverings; prophetically, for the resemblance to the drawing room at Windleshaw, his retirement home built a quarter of a century later is uncanny. Its 'chief charm' is in a 'wide bay window with a deep cushioned couch right across it, having a pleasant prospect over the village green and the downs beyond'10 ( Plate 1 ).

It is, however, in designing of lamps and 'the proper distribution of light in rooms' where Benson is most innovatory. He recognised that, with the more powerful sources of light becoming available (for society was on the threshold of the practical application of electric light to the home) there was a need to diffuse the light source through the use of reflectors, screens and shades. Plate III (Plate 2) in the Notes shows a range of mineral oil lamps and in the centre (No. 82) a copper light reflector. He describes its effects as follows: 'the top reflector . . . throws a brilliant light upon the dining table without distressing the eye by any glare' (Plate 3). The same principle is exploited, but with greater appreci- ation of the sculptural potential of the copper and brass reflector flanges in designs published in 1 897 . 1 1

Many of the ideas which are associated with the early years of electric light stem from the designs made with oil or gas lighting in mind during the early years at Fulham. With the increasing power of the light source he recognised the need for two sorts of lamps 'one for the general lighting of the room and the other sort contrived to throw a strong light upon particular surfaces or objects without exposing the glare of the actual flame to view'.12 One of the most striking and frequently illustrated examples of the second sort is the metal lamp shade consisting of a series of curved copper flanges overlapped to form a cone-shaped reflector. The effect of this cowling over the light source is to reduce the direct rays to a glimmer of graduated light along the edge of the flanges, the main brilliance being directed downwards.

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Platel. Drawing room window at Windleshaw.

Visually this is light play as inventive in its own way as the glitter of a cut-glass chandelier, reflecting and enhancing the flicker of candlelight. A much simpler variant of the flanged reflector was a plain copper or brass cone with a godrooned lower edge. The shade could be angled by means of a small adjustable chain in order to direct the concentrated light towards a particular object.

Plate 2. Plate III from Notes on some of the Minor A rts .

Plate 3. Copper flanges forming a flower shaped shade for a paraffin lamp.

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Plate 4. Venetia and William Benson in their Campden Hill Road Studio.

A photograph taken in the 1880s in the Campden Hill Road Studio (Plate 4) shows Benson surrounded by his designs. He is architypally the practising designer surrounded by his products. His attitude to designing was to familiarise himself with the qualities inherent in the material and the processes of manufacture; to consider the functional requirements of the project; to reject all forms of eclectic or historical style; but above all to ensure sound standards of craftsmanship throughout. Sometimes the outcome is disconcertingly ordinary to modern eyes, lacking the eccentricities of Christopher Dresser, but frequently achieving a simple elegance unsurpassed until the great period of functionalism in the 1920s and 1930s. The photograph shows not only Benson himself at his work desk but also his wife Venetia, whom he married in 1886, seated at a similar desk. Venetia, daughter of Alfred William Hunt, a superb watercolourist in the Turner tradition, brought further links with the artistic fraternity. She was, as is clearly shown in the photograph, part of a working partnership: in those days a much rarer arrangement than it would be today. The studio in Campden Hill Road was essentially a working environment but was also a very effective method of demonstrating to customers the relationship between designing and making which Benson fostered. Goods were made at the Chiswick Mall premises and specimens displayed in intriguing and picturesque disorder in the studio. Benson kept 'open door' and encouraged the readers of his 1883 Notes to call on him during business hours 'where they . . . can have for the asking prices and estimates and other information' about the designs described in the pamphlet 'and many more than I have not space to hint at here.'13

The open-hearted honesty and directness of the approach added to the innovatory brilliance and elegance of the designs, ensured for Benson immediate commercial and critical success. Unlike most of his fellow designers he was not at the mercy of manufacturers who shamelessly exploited, by plagiarising, modifying without consent and generally taking advantage of the weakness of the free- lance designers. It is instructive to compare the relative smoothness of Benson's business enterprises with the commercial vicissitudes of Dresser during the same period. Benson did, however, suffer from unauthorised copying of his designs both in England and abroad. Professor Church writing in 1890 14

refers to the 'countless imitations of his lamps and candelabra which meet us at every turn.'

Arthur Church's assessment of Benson is of interest both because of his criticial and academic standing (he was Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Academy) and from its timing ten years from the start of Benson's commercial enterprise. During that decade the work premises of the firm had been moved and expanded several times and the showrooms had progressed from Campden Hill to New Bond Street, which had in turn been expanded by acquiring the adjoining shop. The article refers to several characteristics of the Benson approach to design which by then he had firmly established:

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Plate 5. A page from the Benson sketch book.

Plate 6. Hanging lamp with Powell glass shade designed for "Standen".

'There are, however, two features which call for remarks in the simplest as well as the most elaborate patterns. One of these may be called constructional directness ; the other feature, which indeed grows out of the first, is dignity of form. Ornamental details are so contrived as to emphasise these characteristics, not obscure them; while the charm of quiet contrasts of colour is added by the use of various metals and patinas. Mr Benson has practically re-introduced and extended the association of copper and brass. Brass is employed where rigidity and strength are demanded; copper is used for reflecting surfaces and for those portions of the work where its beautiful colour and peculiar mechanical proper- ties can be utilised to the best advantage.'15 Church's reference to patination is clarified later in the article: the copper brass or silver metals were sometimes bright polished and lacquered, particularly where their reflective qualities were being exploited. At other times coloured films, dark grey and other shades and types of bronzing were employed. The sale catalogues issued by the firm contained many hundreds of different designs not only for light fittings but also for every sort of domestic appliance, such as fenders and fire-screens, bowls and plates, urns and kettles. An illustrated 'Price list of Fittings for oil, gas, candle, table-ware, etc.', dated 1899- 1900, shows over 800 distinct items in production excluding the considerable range of electric light fittings available at that time.

A sketch book,16 used very probably over a period of several years, demonstrates how Benson combined ready-made components for clients' special requirements, inscribing his design number from the catalogue of the drawings as a ready reference (Plate 5). Using already designed components was another aspect of Benson's practical grasp of the economic advantages of standardising manufacturing processes. A surviving example of a special commission from the early 1890s is the Philip Webb house 'Standen' near East Grinstead, Sussex. The house, now a National Trust property, was commisioned by J. S. Beai, a prosperous solicitor. He not only employed Philip Webb as the architect, but also filled the house with Morris & Co. furnishings, wallpapers, fabrics, furniture, etc. It was one of the first private houses to be completely electrified from the start with fittings supplied by Benson. There were not only

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the table and standard lamps and the adaptable bedside and wall lights chosen from the catalogue, but also specifically designed wrought iron hanging lights with Powell glass shades ( Plate 6) in the entrance hall, stairways, and landings. There is a striking contrast between the special Benson designs and those which Webb himself created for the drawing room. These consisted of an elaborate repousse bronze wall panel with the electric flex held clear by a projecting wooden arm; the flex is embellished with opaque glass spirals and the bulb is exposed except for a shallow glass shade above. There is an air of Arts and Crafts rusticity about the design, reinforced by the employment of John Pearson for the beaten copper panels, which is completely at variance with the smooth and elegant professionalism of the Benson pieces. Indeed, Pearson, who was briefly associated with Ashbee and spasmodically with Morris & Co., represented the opposite extreme of the craftsman designer, completely incapable of working within any organised business, but marvellously skilful and inventive in his own highly individual way.

Benson's down-to-earth practicality is well demonstrated in his 'Notes on Electric Wiring and Fittings' published in 1897. The installation of electric light in dwelling houses had by this time become relatively commonplace (according to Benson) and there was already a danger that the planning and installation would be left to the 'ordinary builder . . . with little enough regard to enduring safety, with still less to economy of use, and least of all to artistic effect' . Characteristically, Benson grasps the whole problem from the viewpoint of the user, offering a simple explanation of the nature of electricity, a room-by- room analysis of the precise requirements of library, dining room, bedrooms and servants' rooms. He shows as much concern for the more mundane aspects, such as the most convenient disposition of the light switches, as for the design requirements of the individual fittings. His love of revealing the 'nuts- and-bolts' decoratively is shown in the way that electric flex is twisted, festooned, used as support and generally exploited for visual effect. Modern safety requirements are unfortunately a severe impedi- ment to present day use of such fittings. The primitive state of popular knowledge of electricity is demonstrated by his warning against the use of 'hair-pins, nails, soda-water wires, etc.' for repairing fuses!

An advertisement supplement to 'The British Home of Today', first published in 1904, 17 re-enforces the message of the earlier pamphlet castigating that 'bane of insurance offices' the 'ready-wired' house.

'The proper lighting of any particular space is determined not only by size, but by its proportion, arrangement, and decoration as well, and by the nature of its use. The number, power, position, etc. of the lamps should be contrived so that whilst a good light is provided in likely positions for reading or writing, the whole space is pleasantly lighted, with that modulation and gradation which is indispen- sable to an artistic effect.'18

There is revealing reference to Benson's architectural approach to design 'rather than from that of the irresponsible designer of things pretty in themselves, but not necessarily in harmony with their sur- roundings, or properly adapted to practical use'. In contrast Benson's fittings, 'in which ornament is used to emphasise, not to obscure the main lines of the design, frequently have no ornament properly so called at all, but depend for effect on sheer beauty of line or mass, combined with the charm due to correct mechanical construction.'19

In the first few years of the twentieth century there is a noticeable change of style, pressed brass or copper 'leaves' are abandoned in favour of a combination of sophisticated, organic (and somewhat Art Nouveau) brass castings combined with opaque veined vaseline glass from James Powell's Whitefriars glass works. A change of style dictated perhaps by the spread of the continental fashion for the 'New Art' which characteristically Benson describes as 'tasteless'. Many continental designers had assimi- lated those lessons in design pioneered by Benson. His products had been marketed throughout Europe (for example, through Bing's shop in Paris), and illustrations of his pieces had appeared not only in English Art and Design magazines but in continental ones also. By 1904, however, when the Benson advertisement was published, continental designers had far outpaced in inventive daring his now rather safe, indeed passé, creations.

Between 1903 and 1904 the Magazine of Art published a series of three articles by F. Hamilton Jackson on contemporary electric light fittings.20 Jackson, who was Vice-President of the Society of Designers, describes with relish continental light fittings where 'artistic fancy has been given free rein' : a nymph in white marble holding aloft a translucent shell; a balloon seller with electric light 'balloons'; a lantern carrying mace-bearer; a teasel lamp with a glass 'seed-pod'. Although he confesses that 'graceful fancy may be exaggerated into a ghoulish unnaturalness which suggests vice rather than healthy enjoyment'.

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Plate 7. Table centre electric lamp combined with fern holder.

Plate 8. Electrolier ; the boardroom, Victoria & Albert Museum.

He is much less sympathetic towards what he describes as 'English quaintness and peculiarity', a reference to Liberty and Verity designs which were generally an amalgam of Arts and Crafts folksyness and Bensonian ideas. He castigates those German designers such as Schumacher and Peter Behrens who followed the English tradition but outdid it in 'unadulterated ugliness and awkwardness'. A study of the illustrated examples shows that these are the very designs which to the modern eye appear most innovatory and stylish. He could equally well have selected examples of designs by Riemerschmid which were clearly directly influenced by Benson.

Jackson reserves his greatest praise for the reproduction French antique style pieces produced by Messrs. Perry. Benson is given grudging praise, he admires his practical craftsman-designer approach and marketing skill but is 'doubtful whether as many masterpieces are likely to be produced' by such methods. Benson's theories, according to Jackson, had led to 'a certain wiriness of design which is not always pleasing'. He illustrates an uncharacteristically eccentric table-lamp which doubles as a recep- tacle for a fern, commenting that it inevitably suggests a shower bath 'although in its proper place it looks very well' ( Plate 7).

By the time of the Jackson articles, Benson's own interests had shifted. He had recently taken over the direction of Morris & Co. following William Morris's death in 1898, and the somewhat shaky fortunes of that firm took up much of his time and thought. He increasingly turned to furniture design and interiors and designed and built 'Windleshaw', his own country house near Tunbridge Wells. It incor- porates many of his gradually evolving ideas which had originated more than a quarter of a century earlier. In 1903 he designed the Morris & Co. stand for the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Societies show. The Franco-British Exhibition stand mounted by the Morris company displayed several pieces of his furniture and Morris & Co. catalogues of the period illustrate many pieces of furniture created by Benson, including bedroom suites of a fairly mundane type.

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His career was by no means over, but his influence on the design of light fittings had long been assimi- lated into a European movement which had moved far ahead of Benson's own, now rather conserva- tive, taste. Although the passage in Hermann Muthesius's 'Das Englische Hause', first published in Berlin in 1904-5 is much quoted, it is such a revealing perception of Benson as a leading, pioneer Euro- pean designer, that it deserves to be repeated:

'Benson was the first to solve the problem of design in metal in the modern spirit when he created the lamps that were later to have a revolutionary effect on all our metalware. Benson was the first to develop his design directly out of the purpose and the character of the metal as material. Form was paramount to him. He abandoned ornament at a time when, generály speaking, even the new movement was fond of ornament. In so doing he opened up new ground . . . Benson was the leading spirit in electric lighting appliances in England, on the continent he was the fruitful instigator . . . He was the first to illumine dining-room tables with light reflected from a shiny metal surface . . . Benson it was who first produced the combined table-lamp and wall lamp which has since been copied everywhere.'21

Even from a source as sympathetic to English architecture and design as Muthesius, the praise lavished on Benson is striking. The claims made for his pioneering role are amply confirmed when tested against contemporary evidence. Blame for the inter-war and post-war period of neglect must be attributed to a paucity of serious critical writing on Design in Great Britain after the deaths of Lewis F. Day, Walter Crane and fellow designer theorists of Benson's own generation. A full and comprehensive appraisal of Benson's contribution to design is overdue.

Notes 1 Nikolaus Pevsner, Pioneers of Modern Design, Penguin, 1960, pp 54-55. Recent renovations to the house revealed an old label attached to a window frame addressed to Morris & Co. at the local station. 3 W. A. S . Benson Metalwork . Introduction by Michael Collins: Michael White way in association with Paul Reeves, Haslam & Whiteway, London, December 1981. 4 Letter dated 4th November 1974 to his mother: quoted in the Memoir by the Hon. W. N. Bruce, CB, published as an introduction to Drawing , Its History and Uses by Benson, Oxford University Press, 1925. 5 Ibid., p XIV. 6 Ibid., p XVI. W. A. S. Benson, Notes on Some of the Minor Arts, 1883, p 1. 8 Ibid., pl. v Ibid., pl. 10 Ibid., p 2. 11 W. A. S. Benson, Notes on Electric Wiring and Fittings , 1897, Plate IV.

12 Notes y 1883, op cit, p 6. 13 Ibid., p 8. 14 A. H. Church, 'Benson's Lamps', The Portfolio, Seeley & Co. Ltd., 1890, pp 19-22. 15 Ibid., p 21. 16 Victoria and Albert Museum, Prints and Drawings Department. 17 W. Shaw (ed.), The British Home of Today, Hodder & Stoughton, 1904, pp IX-XII. 18 Ibid., p IX. 19 Ibid., p XII. -

F. Hamilton Jackson, 'Electric Light Fittings of Today Described and Considered', Magazine of Art, New Series, Vol. 1, pp 540-542, 585-590; Vol. 2, pp 58-63. 21 Quoted from the translation by Janet Seligman, The English House, by Hermann Muthesius, Granada, 1979, p 199.

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ASPECTS OF BRITISH DESIGN 1870 - 1930 || W. A. S. Benson: a Pioneer Designer of Light Fittings