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- Nelson Dawson
- Also known as
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Nelson Dawson
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primary name: Dawson, Nelson
- Details
- individual; printmaker; goldsmith/metalworker; Arts & Crafts; British; Male
- Life dates
- 1859-1942
- Address
- London
- Biography
- Enameller and etcher. Nelson Dawson studied first architecture and painting; he took up metalwork in 1891, studying under the enameller, Alexander Fisher. In 1893, he married Edith Robinson (qv) and taught her to enamel. Together they played a significant role in the revival of enamelling in England at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1901, they founded the Artificers' Guild, in association with the jeweller, Edward Spencer. According to a contemporary account, Edith Dawson did the enamels and Nelson Dawson designed the settings.(Journal of the Society of Arts LVI, 1908, 289)
Their workshop closed in 1923.
Dawson's etchings seem to have been made in the first two decades of the twentieth century. In 1912 he established a school of colour printing of etched and aquatinted plates in Hammersmith together with William Lee-Hankey (qv). See Malcolm C Salaman, 'A new school of colour prints for artists'. The Studio, LVIII, 1913, p.179.
- Bibliography
- 'The Studio', vol 6, 1896, pp. 173-8, 'A Chat with Mr and Mrs Nelson Dawson on Enamelling'.
Mrs. N. Dawson, 'Enamels', London 1906
N. Dawson, 'Goldsmiths' and Silversmiths' Work', London 1907
R. Bickerdike (nee Dawson), 'The Dawsons: an equal partnership of artists', Apollo, November 1988, 320-25.
S. Bury, 'Jewellery 1789-1910. The International Era', vol. 2, Woodbridge 1991, 634-5