Mark Brazier-Jones

Unique dressing table, designed for Issy Brazier-Jones, 1989

Footnotes

Exhibition
'Accidents Will Happen: Creative Salvage, 1981-1991', Friedman Benda, New York, 13 January-12 February 2022

Literature
Gareth Williams and Glenn Adamson, 'Accidents Will Happen: Creative Salvage, 1981-1991', exh. cat., Friedman Benda, New York, 2022, illustrated p. 13

Bonhams wishes to thank Mark Brazier-Jones for his assistance cataloguing the present lot.

From DIY to Design
Nick Wright
Co-author of Cut and Shut: The History of Creative Salvage, London, 2012

Whilst all man-made objects are in some sense intended, only when aligned to a manufacturing process can one be considered 'designed'. A car or fridge, a computer, kettle, an office chair all has been rationalised to a point they become economical in form, therefore cost, to be suitable for manufacture. This is the premise of modernism; good design becomes available to all though mass-production.

Lacking access to an industrial process, most prominent British designers began as DIY makers. Tom Dixon, Mark Brazier-Jones, and Andre Dubreuil - collectively Creative Salvage - started making things "with one welder, one ball cutter and a grinder". As such, their work exemplifies the development from making to manufacturing.

The dressing table in this sale is an example of early artisan making. Created for his then two-year-old daughter Issy, Mark Brazier-Jones' "wonky old house" required a "strictly formal" twin pedestal construction. Onto these solid pedestals he applied decoration and on the top is a hand-wrought fantastical superstructure surrounding the mirror; his aim was to evoke an "Alice in wonderland" setting for Issy to grow up in. Brazier-Jones imagined her first standing on tiptoe to see herself in the glass, her face changing as she got older, a teenager trying on makeup, a woman brushing her hair. He realised too that he was making an heirloom she might one day sell.

"I'm sure she'll do something sensible with the money," he said.

"Oh dear," I said.

"By sensible I mean something fun," he said.

The dressing table is invested with all the love and skill a maker can bring to bear on metal. "The best things are made of love." Asked if the 'Dolphin' chairs from an edition of 300 marked a transition from maker to manufacturer, artisan to designer, Brazier-Jones said that, although he had resolved many of the issues of casting metal himself – a process of design - he worked with a foundry "willing to play with me". Brazier-Jones considers himself an "artist engineer".

Tom Dixon, on the other hand, is a designer by ambition. James Garner, the engineer who worked with Creative Salvage from 1986 and still makes Tom Dixon's prototypes, recalls a late night conversation in the shared flat in Beethoven Street. Each of the group considered their future. Andre Dubreuil said he wanted to be a maker of fine furniture in the French grand tradition. Check. Mark Brazier-Jones wanted to live in the country making furniture. Check. Tom Dixon wanted to be a designer whose name was synonymous with everyday objects; "Mr Biro".

The 'S' Chair produced by Capellini fulfilled that ambition, though it began as an awkward structure welded to a frying pan. Refinements followed. An early version wrapped in rubber was replaced by a rush upholstered version made in Tom Dixon's workshop (lot 27 is an example). There it reached a point of refinement and popularity that made it suitable for manufacture.

The first attempt was not a success. Dixon had received a commission from a restaurant owner in Portugal and outsourced production to India. 8mm Manila rope was specified but James Garner recalls that when the container arrived in London the quality was poor. The steel was low grade, and the roping created the impression their "pants had fallen down". Nonetheless, Michel Young, now himself a designer, was tasked with driving the chairs to Portugal. On the way he crashed the high-top van into a low bridge, necessitating roadside repairs to van and cargo. The roped chair in this sale was never delivered due to a bent base that has since been corrected, it is the sole survivor.

It was Capellini who successfully manufactured the 'S' Chair – as well as producing other Tom Dixon designs. The 'Baby Fat' chair (lot 25) is from a studio production which, like the rush upholstered version of the 'S' Chair, was put into production by Capellini. The 'Cobra' lamp was also manufactured by Capellini, although less than ten were made. This is one of the three created by Dixon's studio.

These are pivotal pieces in Tom Dixon's career. After a process of refinement, first in his own hands, later in those of his employees, they were picked up by Capellini and became the manufactured products we know today. In that transition, Tom Dixon became the designer we know today.