Halsey Ralph Ricardo (1854–1928) was an English architect and designer.
He established his practice in 1878, and for 10 years worked in partnership with William De Morgan (1839–1917), for whom he designed tiles, vases, and other artefacts. He advocated the use of glazed materials to resist the polluted atmosphere of nineteenth century London. In this, he anticipated the designs of Otto Wagner in Vienna, who used coloured tiles set in the same planes as walls and piers to suggest architectural features.
He designed several buildings, of which the best were the Howrah Station, gateway to Calcutta, situated in the twin city Howrah, district Howrah, West Bengal, India (1901; with a glowing exterior of brick and coloured tiles), and Debenham House in Holland Park (1905–8), completely faced with impervious glazed materials, even the roof-tiles. He was an Arts-and-Crafts architect, whose work was extraordinarily sensitive, imaginative, and original. Among his works his own house, ‘Woodside’, Graffham, near Petworth, Sussex (1905), deserves note. In 1910, Ricardo was elected as the Master of the Art Workers' Guild.[1]
In 1882, Halsey designed a mantelpiece for the house at Buckminster Park, then the seat for the Earls of Dysart. It was part of a larger plan for the dining room of the house. The green used was mixed by Ricardo and then copied by Wedgwood as a new jasperware colour. Originally called "peach green," it is now known as "Dysart green," from the original owners of the house.[2]
In 1914-15, he designed a house in Chelsea, London, as a wedding gift for his daughter, Anna.[3] His son, Harry Ricardo, contributed to the development of the internal combustion engine.
References edit
- ^ Riba (1911). The Transactions of the Royal Institute of British Architects Town Planning Conference, London. 10-15 October 1910. p. 86. ISBN 9780415677394.
- ^ Birmingham Museum of Art (2010). Birmingham Museum of Art: Guide to the Collection. London: Giles. p. 221. ISBN 978-1-904832-77-5. Archived from the original on 10 September 2011. Retrieved 28 July 2011.
- ^ "Settlement and building: Artists and Chelsea Pages 102-106 A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 12, Chelsea". British History Online. Victoria County History, 2004. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
