Chafing dish and cover

William Arthur Smith Benson, the designer and maker of this dish, was born in London, educated at Winchester and Oxford, and later articled to the architect Basil Champneys. After meeting William Morris, whom he had admired, Benson was inspired to set up a workshop for the manufacture of metalwork in 1880. He later opened a well-equipped factory in Hammersmith and, in about 1887, a shop in Bond Street. The firm survived until he retired in 1920. Benson was an active member of the Art Worker’s Guild from 1884, a leader in the formation of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society from 1886 and wrote an essay on metalwork in the catalogue of the first exhibition in 1888. On Morris’s death in 1896, Benson became chairman of Morris & Co., for which he designed furniture and wallpapers. In 1914 he was a founder member of the Design and Industries Association.

Benson’s firm produced some simple furniture but his main output was well-designed utilitarian metalwork, including lamps, teapots, dishes and food warmers. These items were usually made in copper and brass but sometimes in electroplate (a base metal, such as copper, covered with silver by electrolysis). Benson had always been interested in engineering and, unlike so many of his Arts and Crafts contemporaries, had little compunction about using the machine.