Claret jug

The Scottish-born designer and theorist Christopher Dresser is considered the father of modern industrial design. Working in a range of mediums, including metalwork, textiles, glass, wallpaper and furniture, Dresser believed in using mechanised methods of production to produce high-quality consumer goods. He designed objects specifically for mass production, some of which are still being made in the twenty-first century.

Dresser originally studied at the Government School of Design at Somerset House, London, and in 1855 went on to lecture in the subject of art botany at the Department of Science and Art, South Kensington. With a keen eye for detail, he drew on Egyptian, Indian and Japanese design history. In 1877 he travelled to Japan, where he was given access to manufacturers and art collections. Not long after his return, in 1879, he designed his first collection for the Birmingham-based company, Hukin and Heath, from which this claret jug comes. Used for serving claret, a French red wine, it references neoclassical chocolate pots and the amphora-shaped vessels of ancient Greece in an abstracted, simple form. There is a sense of honesty in the construction of his claret jug, in his subtle revelation of how each component is joined, a concept that underpins Japanese art.

Rebecca Evans, Curator of Decorative Arts & Design