Hat, coat and umbrella stand, England, made by the Coalbrookdale Company, Shropshire, designed and made for Christopher Dresser, 1870

Hat and Umbrella Stand
Cast Iron
England, 1870 (Design Registry Mark for August 5th, 1870).
Made by the Coalbrookdale Company, Shropshire.
Designed by Christopher Dresser
Inscribed: CHR DRESSER/1870/ TOWER/CRESSY/PROPOSITUM/ET/CREO/COALBROOKDALE/FECIT

This is a remarkably well documented object designed by and made for Christopher Dresser by the Coalbrookdale Company in 1870. The `kite’ registration marks, a form of copyright protection introduced in 1842, indicates that the design was registered at the Patent Office on May 11th, 1870 (as Furniture) and August 5th, 1870 (as Metalwork). The brass medallion fixed to the back is inscribed with Dresser’s signature, the date 1870 and the house for which it was made, Tower Cressy. The Latin, (loosely translated) reads: “I designed this and created it, Coalbrookdale made it.” Tower Cressy was the name of the house that Dresser lived in and worked from between 1868 and 1882. An impressive six storey house, it was built 1852-3 for Thomas Page, the engineer who designed Westminster Bridge. Dresser was admirer of Page, commenting on his bridges – “more artistic than those of any other engineer,” – in a paper he delivered to the Royal Society of Arts. This remarkable building, high up on Campden Hill in Kensington towered literally over its more picturesque and neo Gothic neighbours. It was severely damaged during the Blitz in World War II and demolished shortly afterwards. Dresser left Tower Cressy in September 1882 and moved to Wellesley Lodge in Sutton, Surrey. Ill health and financial trouble brought on by the collapse of his Art Furnishers’ Alliance forced the move.

What is particularly interesting for the V&A about this hat, coat and umbrella stand is that Dresser evidently designed it for his own use while resident in Tower Cressy and yet it is quite unlike other hat and umbrella stands he designed for Coalbrookdale only five years later. These later ones (we have an example in the British Galleries, M.22-1971) have overtly identifiable characteristics of the burgeoning aesthetic movement. Their design rejects any historic references and is strongly geometric in both form and applied incised decoration. The design of this 1870 hat, coat and umbrella stand on the other hand, incorporates recognizably historic elements, such as the `barley sugar’ central pillar, rosettes, naturalistically treated acanthus leaves, a stylised Gothic pinnacle and conventional scrollwork at the base. Comparison of these two stands shows just how far and how quickly Dresser developed a new contemporary aesthetic, in line with the prevailing fashion for English Aestheticism of the 1870s.

The Coalbrookdale Company of Shropshire, England, was founded in 1709 and was famed for its cast iron work. In the 1840’s, the company’s chairman, Francis Darby, began developing lines of decorative furniture, designed in the ornate styles of the Renaissance, Gothic Revival and Rococo periods. Given its strength and resistance to rust, cast iron was ideal for the outdoors and for certain types of hall furniture. It was more economical to manufacture than wrought iron and featured at London’s Great Exhibition of 1851. Queen Victoria herself became a client.

M.3:1 to 3-2014