Christopher Dresser was a leading figure in the Japonisme movement in the West, and his efforts to promote Japanese art and design led him to set sail for Japan in 1876-1877. This was the first visit to Japan by a European Designer, and Dresser was commissioned to form two collections of 'reliable tutorial value': one for the London based importer of Japanese wares, Londos & Co., and the other for Tiffany & Co. of New York. Charles and Louis Tiffany commissioned him to bring back some 8000 objects from Japan, from which their own craftsmen could take inspiration and obtain technical knowledge. These were delivered by Dresser on his return journey from Japan in 1877.

Dresser is known to have worked as an advisor to the firm of Londos and Co. (a partnership between Cornelius Brabrook Pare (whose sponsor’s mark is on this bowl), Peter Charles and John Reynolds). The partnership was dissolved in 1879. The hallmarks on this bowl (Birmingham, 1878, Cornelius Brabrook Pare) suggest that it was one of the items brought back by Dresser for Londos & Co. in 1877.

Based on the design of an interesting Tiffany & Co. chocolate pot made in New York in 1979, it seems reasonable to conclude that a similar bowl may have included in the collection that Dresser amassed for Tiffany. The chocolate pot features similar applied mixed metal animals including a crab (see pg. Fig. 8.13, pg. 262 In Pursuit of Beauty. Americans and the Aesthetic Movement, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1987, and https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/20121).

The book describes this chocolate pot in the following words: The dramatic and difficult combination of copper and silver is seen in a graceful Tiffany & Company chocolate pot made in 1879. The form of this piece is Western, yet it is covered with a reddish patina and decorated with sea-life motifs, suggesting Japanese print sources. Crabs and lobsters cast in silver are affixed to the copper surface, which has been soldered and hammered to the silver body of the pot. (Pg. 262) 

In providing Tiffany with such a wealth of examples, David Hanks asserts that Dresser ‘acted as a catalyst for the influence of Japanese art on American manufacturers and designers (Gorham and Tiffany, for example, both produced items of silverware applied with mixed metals). Dresser marvelled at the way in which Japanese craftsmen combined beauty and utility in the goods they made for everyday use, and he incorporated a number of Japanese themes into his own creations, including butterflies, frogs, cherry, reeds and insects. His motto ‘In Pursuit of Beauty’ became virtually synonymous with Japonisme.

Dresser devoted several pages of his book Japan: Its Architecture, Art, and Art Manufactures to descriptions of the virtues of Japanese metalwork, of which a few are included below.

Our first acquaintance with Japanese (metal) manufacturers revealed their skill in the casting of metals...The great peculiarity which I noticed in the Japanese method consisted in a fresh model being made for every work produced...It will be seen that this process, although laborious, gives variety and interest to the works produced ; and while all such methods must seem to us to involve an unnecessary expenditure of labour, I yet think that the Japanese gain as much as they lose by their processes. The Japanese method of casting gives a certain amount of variety in the work produced, for no two objects are precisely alike (pp. 417-420)

Pg 428 The Japanese have more nearly achieved the production of colour harmony in metals than any other people; and in many of their works we see gold, silver, copper, zinc, black-metal, tea-urn bronze, green bronze, and other metals and alloys brought together; and not only brought together, but so arranged that their colours are brightened by reflected lights, and brought into harmony by skilful juxtaposition.

Pg 429: One other point connected with Japanese metalwork is worthy of most careful consideration, namely, the various textures given to metals. We are too fond of bright surfaces, and not unfrequently prefer glitter to repose; but to the Japanese, glitter is vulgar.

References: Christopher Dresser and Japan, (Catalogue Committee, 2002); Christopher Dresser and the Arts of Japan, Harry Lyons & Chris Morley (RSA Journal, Vol. 148, No. 5496 (2001), pp. 90-91); Japan: Its Architecture, Art, and Art Manufactures, Christopher Dresser, London, 1882; Old Bailey Record “t18841020-998”,1884; In Pursuit of Beauty. Americans and the Aesthetic Movement, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1987; The Metropolitan Museum of Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/20121, New York).