Dresser wallpapers.(Design notes)(Christopher Dresser )

The prolific and influential designer Christopher Dresser has been the subject of several recent exhibitions and monographs. He is well known not only for his many designs for furniture, ceramics, glass, floor coverings, metalware, textiles, wallpaper, and books, but also for his writings, lectures, and interviews. Both his designs and theories had a profound impact on designers all over the world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Indeed, he said of himself in 1871, "As an architect, I have as much work as many of my fellows, and as an ornamentist I have much the largest practice in the Kingdom; so far as I know, there is not one branch of art-manufacture that I do not regularly design patterns for, and I hold regular appointments as 'art advisor' and 'chief designer' to several of our largest art-manufacturing firms."

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Dresser designed not only for the affluent, but also for the middle class. He was often referred to as the father of industrial design; for he had a thorough understanding of technology, which he made use of designing wallpapers. He realized that they were significantly cheaper to produce by machine than by hand printing, although he designed papers for both methods of reproduction.

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In 1986 Wayne Mason, then an engineer, and his wife Cheryl Wolf moved into Masons grand-parents' turn-of-the-century house in Holmdel, New Jersey. The house inspired the couple to seek out Victoriana to furnish the interiors in the appropriate style. In 2001, having moved ...