Biography

Scottish designer, botanist, and writer. He studied at the Somerset House School of Design from 1847 to 1853 and taught botanic there from 1854. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Jena for his books on botany in 1860.

In 1875 he began concentrating on arts and crafts, designing silver tableware and, after 1879, also glass, furniture, textiles, and the first Art Nouveau ceramics in England.

After a trip to the Far East in 1876, Dresser became one of the main protagonists of Japonisme and opened a store for imported Japanese goods in 1879.

Dresser's work is marked by its simple design and strong line. He was inspired by Asian and Pre-Columbian pottery and by the vocabulary of forms of Islam, classical antiquity, India, China and the Celts. Dresser also issued many publications on questions concerning the justice of material and function, on the formal design of industrial products, and on botany and its use in arts and crafts.