THE birthday of pioneering Victorian designer Christopher Dresser is to be celebrated with a festival in his honour at the Dorman Museum.

The event will have an owl theme, in homage to the Dresser-designed plate which inspired the Alan Garner fantasy novel ‘The Owl Service’.

Dresserfest runs from Thursday, July 2 to Saturday, July 4, with a family fun day from 10am to 4pm on the Saturday, which marks his birthday, which will feature a reading from the classic book by BBC Tees DJ Bob Fischer, a fan of the author.

Visitors will also be able to get up close and personal with owls and other birds brought by the North Yorkshire Moors Birds of Prey.

Among the first independent industrial designers, Mr Dresser (1834 to 1904) championed design reform in 19th century Britain while embracing modern manufacturing in the development of wallpaper, textiles, ceramics, glass, furniture and metalware.

Mr Fischer said: “The Owl Service is an extraordinary, powerful book that I first read at the age of 11, and it made a profound and lifelong impression on me.

“I’m honoured and thrilled it to be reading it to a Teesside audience, especially in the presence of the beautiful Dresser porcelain that inspired it.

“This will be a uniquely haunting and evocative event, and I’m proud to be a part of it.”

There will also be an opportunity to view an exhibition of brand new artworks created by local artists in response to the museum’s Dresser collection.

Gill Moore, Curator at Dorman Museum, added: “To discover that a pattern designed by Christopher Dresser in the 1880s inspired one of Alan Garner's most famous books is amazing.”

Christopher Dresser was born in Glasgow on July 4, 1834, though his family originated from North Yorkshire. After working and travelling across the globe he opened Linthorpe Art Pottery in Middlesbrough in 1879.