# Edith Dawson

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{{Short description|English artist and jeweller (1862–1929)}}
{{about||the pathologist and cancer researcher|Edith Kate Dawson}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Edith Dawson
| image         = Edith Dawson.jpg
| alt           = 
| caption       = Dawson, c.1896
| birth_name    = Edith Brearey Dawson
| birth_date    = 1862
| birth_place   = [Croydon](/source/Croydon), [Surrey](/source/Surrey)
| death_date    = 4 March 1929
| death_place   = 
| other_names   = 
| occupation    = Artist, [jeweller](/source/jeweller) and member of the [Arts and Crafts movement](/source/Arts_and_Crafts_movement)
| spouse        = [Nelson Dawson](/source/Nelson_Dawson) (1893)
| known_for     = 
| notable_works = 
}}

[[File:Edith dawson, placca smaltata (1902) in cornice d'argento di nelson dawson (1922).jpg|thumb|An enamel plaque by Edith Dawson in a silver frame by [Nelson Dawson](/source/Nelson_Dawson)]]
'''Edith Brearey Dawson''' (née '''Robinson'''; 1862 – 4 March 1929) was an English artist, [jeweller](/source/jeweller) and member of the [Arts and Crafts movement](/source/Arts_and_Crafts_movement).

==Biography==
Edith Robinson was born in [Croydon](/source/Croydon), [Surrey](/source/Surrey), to Quaker parents. In the 1880s Robinson was working as an art teacher and earning extra money through selling watercolours, primarily depicting cottage gardens and flowers.<ref>Rhoda Bickerdike (nee Dawson), "The Dawsons: An Equal Partnership of Artists," Apollo, November 1988, p. 321.</ref>

In 1893 she married [Nelson Dawson](/source/Nelson_Dawson) in London.<ref name="sgla">{{Cite web |url=https://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib2_1203113444 |title=Mrs Edith Brearey Dawson - Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951 |website=sculpture.gla.ac.uk |access-date=2018-04-28}}</ref> He was an architecturally trained painter and metalworker.<ref name=Wolf /> The two had met in an art shop in [Scarborough](/source/Scarborough%2C_North_Yorkshire), where Dawson was working as an assistant.<ref>Charlotte Gere and Geoffry Munn (1989), Artists' Jewellery: Pre-Raphaelite to Arts and Crafts, The Antique Collectors Club {{ISBN|1 85149 024 8}}</ref>

In the early 1890s Nelson Dawson attended a series of lectures on [enamelling](/source/enamelling) given by [Alexander Fisher](/source/Alexander_Fisher_(painter)). It is unclear whether he then taught Edith the skill or whether they attended the lectures together.<ref name=Wolf>Toni Lesser Wolf, "Women Jewelers of the British Arts and Crafts Movement", The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Vol 14 (Autumn 1989), p.33</ref> The two subsequently collaborated on jewellery, with Edith Dawson creating the enamels and Nelson Dawson the metalwork. Edith Dawson was a perfectionist and her enamels are of exceptionally high quality, with a delicate, jewel-like appearance that is easily recognisable. Examples of the Dawsons' work can be found in the [Victoria and Albert Museum](/source/Victoria_and_Albert_Museum)<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O76583/pendant-dawson-edith-brearey/ |title=Pendant |website=collections.vam.ac.uk |language=en |access-date=2018-04-28}}</ref> and [the British Museum](/source/the_British_Museum).

The couple moved to [Chiswick](/source/Chiswick) where they set up a workshop. During the busiest years they employed up to twenty craftsmen. In 1900 they exhibited 125 pieces of jewellery at the [Fine Art Society](/source/Fine_Art_Society) in Bond Street. However, by 1914 the couple were in financial difficulties and they reduced their metalwork output. They continued to create, and in 1917 exhibited several commemorative and [heraldic](/source/heraldic) plaques at the [Royal Academy](/source/Royal_Academy) including one bearing the Arms of [Trinity College, Cambridge](/source/Trinity_College%2C_Cambridge) in bronze and [champlevé enamel](/source/champlev%C3%A9_enamel).<ref name="sgla" />

In 1905 Edith Dawson published a small book entitled ''A Little Book on Art: Enamel''. During her career Dawson also exhibited works with both the [New English Art Club](/source/New_English_Art_Club) and the [Royal Society of British Artists](/source/Royal_Society_of_British_Artists).<ref name="HTurnbull">{{cite book|author= Harry Turnbull|publisher= Thornton Gallery|year=1976|title=Artists of Yorkshire A Short Dictionary}}</ref>

== References ==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dawson, Edith}}
Category:1862 births
Category:1929 deaths
Category:19th-century English women artists
Category:20th-century English women artists
Category:19th-century enamellers
Category:20th-century enamellers
Category:Artists from the London Borough of Croydon
Category:People from Croydon
Category:Arts and Crafts movement artists
Category:British jewellery designers
Category:English enamellers
Category:Women enamellers
Category:British women jewellers

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Edith Dawson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Dawson) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Dawson?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.
