The Decorative Arts Society 1850 to the Present

Christopher Dresser —Interior DesignerAuthor(s): Harry LyonsSource: The Journal of the Decorative Arts Society 1850 - the Present, No. 21, decoration inbuildings (1997), pp. 22-26Published by: The Decorative Arts Society 1850 to the PresentStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41809251 .

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Christopher Dresser -

Interior Designer by Harry Lyons

T 1 1 o most people, the name of Christopher Dresser conjures up metalware or ceramics. Yet, it was in the world of interior design that he first established his reputation. Apart from his work as textile and wallpaper designer, he is recorded as early as 1865 as having decorated a house for John Ward, a textile manufacturer of Halifax.

In common with other designers and architects of the period, Dresser found it necessary to design and commission furnishings, because those available were quite unacceptable. It was from a requirement to design everything himself that Dresser extended his expertise into all aspects of domestic design, including the exotic teapots and ceramics with which we tend to identify him a century or so later. But it was with furnishings that Dresser made his name and it was Dresser's "name" which gave manufac-turers such as Dixon and John Harrison of Linthorpe the courage to produce the individual metalware and ceramic shapes.

Halifax may be seen as the town which gave Dresser his chance to succeed. His father was Inland Revenue Commissioner for Halifax from 1853 to circa 1860, and through this connection we assume he must have met the great manufacturing names such as the Wards, the Holdsworths, the Listers and, most importantly, the Crossleys, the "biggest" name in the town and, through the Crossley family connection, Brinton and Lewis of Kidderminster. These families were wealthy and they aspired to achieve status, but apart from the Listers, it was new money, and they were interested in new styles. These were the sort of people who, all over industrial Britain, were buying pre-Raphaelite pictures as an act of faith.

When John Whitely Ward had his house decorated by Dresser in 1865, one can imagine the competition to excel in a medium-size town, as the following extract from an article written in 1905 illustrates:

"It was a current report some thirty years ago, that Dr Dresser spent some £2,500 on the ceiling of a dining room for a Yorkshire carpet manufacturer, and to go one better another brother in the same firm capped it by spending £3,500 on his ceiling..."1

From documented sources in Halifax, we can tell that Dresser was involved in decorating a chapel for John Lister as well as some furnishings for his Tudor manor house, Shibden Hall2. We also know that Dresser carried out the interior design of the Crossley's factory headquarters, including the boardroom and the "Design Room".3 It is also probable that Dresser designed the hall ceiling for the Holdsworth family at Spring Hall, but this evidence rests purely on design attribution.

However, Dresser's monument in Halifax

must be Allangate, the house of Thomas Shaw, MP. We do not have any account of John Lewis's Savile Hall to compare with Allangate, but we have an enthusiastic eye-witness account of Allangate written circa 1884 by a correspondent of the "Bradford Evening Telegraph" [Pictures-que Views of Castles and Country Houses in Yorkshire]. From this account one can sense that Dresser must have been in his element. Here was a house where he could have overall direction, from the design of the gardens to the choice of furniture. Plans were drawn up in March 1870 using the local architects, Horsfall, Wardle and Patchett. According to the eye- witness, the site of Allangate was not ideal. A Regency house built for a clergyman in four acres of land, it was sandwiched between two major roads and on a slope. The account, written some 15 years .after the re-design, shows Dresser's expertise as a botanist and landscape gardener coming to fruition:

"A magnificent bank of [laurel] extends from the back of the house up to the extremity of the grounds in one steep, unbroken slope of brilliant green, the lower edge being bordered with excellent effect by a compact bush growth of the glossy green leaves of the ground ivy. There are several other fine laurel banks to the east of the house, where the grounds rise from terrace to terrace in slopes of exquisitely smooth and well-kept turf, shaded by full- foliaged trees. A large barberry bank here also flourishes with quite abnormal luxuriance for this part of the country. In the latter part of summer and in autumn, when the lovely green of the barberry leaf is profusely powdered with the brilliant scarlet berries, the effect is extremely beautiful.

"A mass of rockwork, half cave, half recess, and overhung by huge trees, interspersed with thickets of rhododendrons, ablaze with masses of brilliant-hued flowers forms the eastern extremity of the grounds. A series of flights of rustic stone steps, with recesses at intervals provided with suitable seats, and a bark-coverd summer-house near the summit, lead to the terraced walks, of which there are several running along the ground. From the topmost, which runs under the shade of trees through whose foliage the sun's rays dance and glint upon the gravelled path and the grass beneath, a beautiful prospect is obtained. The terrace is at such an elevation that the spectator is enabled to look uninterruptedly over the small sea of foliage formed by the summits of the tall trees in the lower portion of the ground, and direct his gaze to any portion of the valley for miles on either side...

"Immediately to the west of the house a large conservatory and long ranges of glass suitable for various descriptions of hothouse plant propagation are situated. Beyond these is a neatly laid out ornmental garden, the extent of which may be best gathered from the fact that to fill the flower beds alone over twenty thousand plants are annually required. A mass

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Fig. 1 A drawing-room window. Allangate (photo Alastair Carew-Cox)

Fig. 2 Coffered drawing-room ceiling. Allangate photo Alastair Carew-Cox)

Fig. 3 Upstairs glass ceiling. Allangate (photo Alastair Carew-Cox

of rockwork encloses this garden on the west, and in the interstices of the rugged moss-grown stones wave the graceful feathery fronds of fern, whilst from above a luxurious vegetation depends. Emerging out of the tunnelled subway which undermines this rockwork the visitor finds himself in a capacious lawn tennis court, with a high wooded bank rising towards the right and in front, whilst to the left is an ornamental shrubbery. At each end of the tennis court is a semi-circular seat of stonework for the convenience of spectators, whilst facing the centre of the ground is a pavilion of Moorish design, with ornamental tiles let into the frontage, which is further adorned by clinging

tendrils of ivy winding in and out of the open work with which the edifice is crowned. The interior of the pavilion is panelled in pitch pine, the walls containing arched recesses in which are placed the foliage and flowering plants. From the lawn tennis ground a short flight of steps leads to a dark shaded pool, in the midst of which there is a curiously-contrived ornamental fountain, and beyond this again the path leads through a small wood, where everything has as much as possible been left to nature. The ground is thickly carpeted with ferns, whilst the lovely flowers of the narcissus and daffodil, which grow here freely in a wild state, are on every hand visible."

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Fig. 4 Library ceiling. Allangate. Dresser is quoted as believing this to have been his masterpiece (photo Alastair Carew-Cox)

Fig. 5 Detail of Library ceiling. Allangate (photo Alastair Carew-Cox)

Fig. 7 Detail of Hall frieze. Bushloe House, Leicester (photo Alastair Carew-Cox)

Fig. 6 The Dining-room. Allangate, taken circa 1990. Parts of the dado and wall decoration show through. This is now covered over. (Photo by courtesy of National Monuments)

One cannot help admiring Dresser's contrasts. The garden beds massed with colour, contrasting with the wild garden in the woods. The contrast between "shady nooks" and panoramic views of the Yorkshire hills. The site, sadly, has now been re-developed, but there is still some idea of how magnificent this whole concept of landscape gardening must have looked.

For the interior design of Allangate, we can do no better than return to the eye-witness account:

"Allangate is a building of rather low

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elevation but of great length, its appearance being a consequence of various additions considered requisite from time to time, and which could only be made in the direction of length. The house has suffered less, however, by these additions than is generally found to be the case, and with the exception that it is necessary to ascend a flight of steps from the entrance hall before the level of the reception rooms is reached, the interior arrangements are as complete and convenient as could have been desired by a well-ordered mansion erected in the present day. With regard to the interior it is safe to say that there is no house anywhere in the district and few in England fitted up with such elaborate and artistic thoroughness. Mr Shaw has spared no expense to make his Halifax residence a typical example of the highest and most ela-borate style of ancient Grecian art in its application to modern dwellings, and the result is singularly successful. It was to Dr Dresser, the eminent London art authority, that the work was entrusted, and it has been carried out under his directions with great perfection of detail. It would be impossible to convey any adequate idea of the character of the decorations through the mere medium of words, for a reproduction of the designs them-selves would alone suffice to indicate their graceful and artis-tic nature. It may not be amiss, however, briefly to attempt to delineate the principal characteristics, premising in the first place that the alterations carried out have been so thorough as to comprise even the renewal of the fireplaces, gas and other fixtures, and of the whole of the furniture. The fire-places throughout the building are of polished black marble with incised work in gold, and the whole of the woodwork and the furniture, which was manufactured from special designs prepared by Dr Dresser, is in ebonised wood with incised gold work. Dados are found in all the rooms, and like the upper portion of the walls are flatted in aesthetic colours with suitable archaic patterns stencilled thereon. The ceilings are exquisitely painted in patterns of pure Greek design."

"The library, which opens to the left of the central hall, is a handsome apartment decorated with great elaborateness. The dado is of a delicate chocolate shade charged with a gold floral pattern, treated according to conventional Greek art, the upper portion of the walls being of a cool green tone. The ceiling is of quite exceptional excellence as an example of the particular style of decoration it represents, and was considered by Dr Dresser to be the most remarkable feature in the ornamentation of the whole building, and his own veritable masterpiece. The fixed bookcase here is placed between two pillars of black marble, with gold ornamentation on the pediment and capital."

"The drawing-room, which opens to the right of the hall, is an extremely elegant apartment and occupies the whole of the ground floor of

the east wing, its folding windows opening upon the tesselated pavement and large lawn which are comprised in the grounds immediately contiguous to the house on this side. This room is fitted up with a double ceiling of unique and handsome design. The lower ceiling is of open trellis work of oak deco rated in blue and black, and with gold bosses at each of the intersections. The spaces or panels of the upper ceiling visible through this trellis work are painted with floral patterns. The dado is of crimson with floral stencil-work in gold and black. The cornice is an artistic combination in blue, black and gold, and the upper walls are tinted a cool buff relieved by designs in chocolate and gold. The transom lights are of stained glass in handsome designs, whilst in the walls between the windows are placed medallions of stained glass, surrounded by ebonised and gilded framework. These medallions are so arranged that whilst during the daytime they are lit up from without in the same manner as ordinary stained glass windows, in the evening they can be illuminated by means of powerful gas jets fixed behind, with extremely novel and charming effect. The medallions each contain an antique female head, illustrative of morning, noon, evening and night. There are two fire-places in the room, each being tiled in an aesthetic shade of electric blue. They are surmounted by elegantly designed overmantels of cabinet form ascending almost to the roof, and whose shelves, as indeed are the tables and wall cabinets in this and other apartments, are filled with a profusion of the choicest old cloissonne, Persian, Chinese and Japanese ware, in which the ateliers of most of the oldest and most-sought-after makers are represented. On each side of the fireplace at the end of the apartment is a recess, in the upper part of which a large mirror is inserted. The lower portion of each recess is faced with a sheet of plate glass. Behind is a cavity lined with mossy stones, which communicates with the house. This is intended for the reception of hot- house plants, when the family is in residence. A brilliant light can be direc-ted from without the house upon the plants, and the miniature conservatories when illuminated at night have an exceedingly pretty and graceful effect. In the recess above the plants runs the motto in letters of gold on a black ground, "Consider the lilies of the field how they grow." The illumination of the room itself is provided for by means of delicately designed standards of polished brass copied from ancient Grecian temple lamp stands. These are as wonderfully offective in adding to the general semble of the room as they are novel. There are also in the room a number of very handsome bronze and other lamps of unusual and artistic design. The furniture is of extremely massive and tasteful character."

"The dining-room, which opens from the corridor already alluded to, is a large and lofty

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chamber lighted by [a] bay window.... and [a] double window to the left. It is furnished in black and gold with upholstery of buff leather, and the fire-place, an exception to the rule prevailing in the remainder of the building, is in coloured marble. The recess on each side of the fireplace is filled in with a large mirror of perfect clearness, and at the foot of each mirror is a large ebony and gold trough-shaped receptacle for holding ornamental plants. The cabinet buffet is a very large and elabo rate piece of workmanship, and its numerous shelves contain a large quantity of ceramic ware of the most valuable description."

"The staircase leading to the upper floor is lighted by means of double windows, the inner framework being in each case filled in with stained glass, whilst illumination is provided in the corridor into which the main bedrooms open by means of a stained glass roof."

Allangate was divided vertically into five separate dwellings in 1920. The building is now Grade 2 listed, but virtually all the removable furnishings have disappeared. Yet, as one can see from the pictures, Allangate is restorable. The centenary of Dresser's death in 2004 gives just about enough time for someone to rescue what remains. No other building identified with Dresser, apart from Bushloe House, remains in any meaningful way, and even Bushloe House has largely been destroyed.

Like Allangate, Bushloe House seems to have been a composite design project, including the gardens. Like Allangate, Bushloe was the enlargement of an earlier house, but unlike Allangate, the Gothic additions to the original Bushloe were already built when Dresser came on the scene. The date of the interior re-design of Bushloe is usually given as 1880, and certain features such as the Jekyll fire-surrounds support this date. The style of decoration is suitable to a Gothic building, but 1880 is late for Dresser to be decorating in this style. He was very much in his Japanese mode at this time. I would be more comfortable placing the date of Bushloe's re- decoration closer to 1866, the year that the owner, Hiram Owston, a solicitor and banker, bought the house.

One wonders what other buildings decorated by Dresser still exist. His own houses at Hammersmith, Kensington, Sutton and Barnes no longer stand. We know he decorated a dining room and furniture for the Chubb family in Chislehurst.

I hope the above goes some way towards alerting readers to the perils of losing a great overall decorative scheme such as Allangate. Largely misunderstood and undervalued, Christopher Dresser is, I believe, more important than William Morris. Morris looked back, Dresser looked forward.

Notes 1 The Journal Decorative Art 1905, p 17 2 Lister Archives, Halifax 3 Crossley Archives, Halifax

HARRY LYONS Harry Lyons is a specialist dealer in design,

1860-1914. He opened his shop in London's Kensingto Church Street in 1990, after an earlier career in HM Forces. He is currently researching the life and work of Christopher Dresser, mounting an exhibition of his work early in 1998.

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