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Lot Essay
The original design, number 206162, was the first attributable to Christopher Dresser for the Coalbrookdale Foundry and was registered and patented at the Public Record Office on 18th February, 1867, and are seat numbers 45 and 51 in their 1875 Castings Catalogue, Section III, pages 251 and 257.
A single Waterplant seat of this type sold Sotheby's, 21st September 1999, lot 220, £2,300.
Other designs for Coalbrookdale by Dresser include three hall stands and a suite of hall furniture which were registered in December of the same year.
Christopher Dresser, (b.1834, d.1904), ardently advocated the utilisation of cast iron, in the creation of functional yet decorative household pieces of furniture. Dresser was attracted by the creative potential already employed by the Shropshire based Coalbrookdale Company and claimed they 'would form excellent studies for the treatment of plants in iron work'. He held a deep passion for botany, having published a series of articles in 1857-8 entitled Botany as adapted to the Arts and Art Manufacture, which is echoed through his both angular yet rounded leafy forms. By the end of the 1860's Dresser became Coalbrookdale's prime designer, replacing Alfred Stevens and John Bell. It was fitting union and thus helped Dresser forge ahead in his pursuit to reform design and industry in Britian.
Widar.Halen, Chritopher Dresser, Christie's 1990.
Michel Whiteway, Christopher Dresser 1834-1904, Fondazione La Triennale, Milan, 2001.
A single Waterplant seat of this type sold Sotheby's, 21st September 1999, lot 220, £2,300.
Other designs for Coalbrookdale by Dresser include three hall stands and a suite of hall furniture which were registered in December of the same year.
Christopher Dresser, (b.1834, d.1904), ardently advocated the utilisation of cast iron, in the creation of functional yet decorative household pieces of furniture. Dresser was attracted by the creative potential already employed by the Shropshire based Coalbrookdale Company and claimed they 'would form excellent studies for the treatment of plants in iron work'. He held a deep passion for botany, having published a series of articles in 1857-8 entitled Botany as adapted to the Arts and Art Manufacture, which is echoed through his both angular yet rounded leafy forms. By the end of the 1860's Dresser became Coalbrookdale's prime designer, replacing Alfred Stevens and John Bell. It was fitting union and thus helped Dresser forge ahead in his pursuit to reform design and industry in Britian.
Widar.Halen, Chritopher Dresser, Christie's 1990.
Michel Whiteway, Christopher Dresser 1834-1904, Fondazione La Triennale, Milan, 2001.