Christopher Dresser

Christopher Dresser, a Glasgow-born botanist turned designer, produced metal teapots, toast racks and claret jugs in the 1870s and 1880s for firms such as James Dixon and Sons and Hukin and Heath, with bare geometric forms and angled handles that look startlingly modern. He was one of the first independent designers to work for manufacturers, and thought about how a spout pours and how much metal a shape needs.