Peter Dreiser was born in Cologne, German Reich (now Germany) in 1936. He was educated in the glass industry in postwar Germany but immigrated to London, England in 1955 with an aim of setting up his own glass engraving workshop. Dreiser subsequently established himself as one of the foremost glass engravers in the UK and a highly respected teacher at Morley College for Working Men and Women, in south London.
Wheel-engraver on glass, Peter Dreiser was born in Cologne, German Reich (now Germany) on 11 June 1936. His father was a railway engineer, related to the American novelist, Theodore Dreiser. The family was displaced to Bavaria in 1943 after their home was bombed and later moved to Brühl, North Rhine-Westphalia, where Dreiser developed an interest in minerals. Leaving school at 14 with a penchant for drawing but dyslexic and with no academic distinction, Dreiser enrolled at the State School for Art Glass, Rheinbach. The school cherished the skills of its 18th century founders, Bohemian engravers and exiles from the Sudetenland. During his three-year studies, Dreiser acquired engraving skills, learning to portray complex subjects with simplicity, such as leaves in silhouette and objects against monochrome backgrounds. He also learned glassmaking, glass cutting and enamelling, studying under Otto Pietsch, a refugee from Steinschönau. Despite the high quality of Dreiser’s work, including a hunting scene graduation piece that took 55 hours to create, Dreiser struggled to find employment, working as a painter before being employed by an elderly engraver in Cologne, who compensated him minimally.
In 1955, Dreiser immigrated to London. While still in Germany, he had advertised in an international glass magazine, seeking employment. A Jewish businessman from the German-speaking refugee community in north London replied, offering him a position as an engraver in his company. (which also employed an ex-SS member) and which was producing glass for Woolworths' stores. In 1957, Dreiser married Tina Torner (daughter of the Spanish musicologist Eduardo Martínez Torner). The couple had two daughters and a son. Tina soon secured him a job at a company that adopted silkscreen methods for applying enamel on glass. By the late 1950s, Dreiser had constructed a lathe at home, resuming his glass engraving work, but initially found no retailers in London. A breakthrough occurred when a Piccadilly store ordered six of his pieces, leading to his discovery by Thomas Goode - a prestigious Mayfair shop supplying the British royal household - which gave him a permanent role as an engraver.
Dreiser was an expert in intaglio and relief engraving using a copper wheel, making both multi-coloured and monochrome pieces. His style is characterised by naturalistic and detailed depictions of flora and fauna within a highly realistic setting, yet which retains a strong decorative flair. When depicting botanical motifs, his lines are fluid and swirling, lending the composition a sense of vibrancy. His animals are sometimes portrayed as still, but more often, they appear to be captured in motion. He would also show them suffering from the effects of pollution and he encouraged recycling. His methodology consisted of observing nature through the eyes of a gardener and photographer and translating these experiences into glass. Dreiser also began to collect 19th-century English engraved glasses from Portobello Road in west London, acquiring them for minimal sums. This collection grew so valuable that selling just half enabled him to purchase a home and become Goode's principal auction buyer. The high prices of antique glass and the experience of encountering Whistler's engravings in 1969 at Agnew's, expanded his vision for his craft, perceiving it as not merely decorative but as poetic. This, alongside a hefty commissions from the Bank of England, inspired him to establish a freelance workshop in 1970. He was soon receiving commissions from important clients such as the Church of England, HRH Prince of Wales, and the Royal College of Physicians. Dreiser also received commissions from HM Queen to craft pieces either for herself or as gifts for foreign dignitaries. He also made a glass roundel depicting Noah’s Ark for the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, St John's Wood, London.
In addition to engraving, Dreiser was also involved in education. He taught at Morley College for Working Men and Women for about 25 years and also served as a visiting tutor at West Dean College in Sussex. In 1975, Elly Eliades, Dreiser’s student, established the Guild of Glass Engravers uniting craftsmen who had previously worked in isolation. The guild gained 700 members and fostered strong connections with the glass industry and museums. This gave Dreiser, who was a fellow of the Guild and later its vice-president, a platform from which to expand his audience through its regular exhibitions. In 1977, he received a bursary from the Crafts Council, enabling him to visit European glass centres. In 1982, he co-published a seminal manual, Techniques of Glass Engraving (B. T . Batsford) which was republished as recently as 2019. In 1999, Dreiser made a 180 minute instructional DVD, Glass Engraving with Peter Dreiser. In 2005 he was appointed an MBE. Peter Dreiser died of cancer on 4 April 2006, most likely in London, England. In the UK public domain, his work is held in the collections of Broadfield House Glass Museum; Fitzwilliam Museum; the Science Museum Group and the V&A.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Peter Dreiser]
Publications related to [Peter Dreiser] in the Ben Uri Library