Sunday, July 1, 2012

The Home Beautiful: The Greenlands Bath Taps, 1900

Click Above Image for Detail
Taps from Greenlands
Nelson Dawson, 1900
The Victoria & Albert Museum


A work of white metal, copper and brass, this bath tap unit was installed in “Greenlands,” a lush country house near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. The owner of Greenlands was one William Frederick Danvers Smith, 1st Viscount Hambledon who commissioned this design from Nelson Ethelred Dawson (1859-1942).

Greenlands is now a civil service staff college but, many of Dawson’s fittings remain in the house. Clearly, this isn’t one of them since its in the V&A. It is often studied as an excellent example of the decorative arts of 1900. Furthermore, Dawson is still considered one of England's most important arts and crafts designers. Incidentally, Dawson’s drawing for these taps, dated May 1900, is also in the V&A—see below.



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