Douglas Donaldson was a leading figure of the Arts and Crafts movement in Southern California. After early studies in Joliet, Illinois, he studied and taught classes in jewelry and metalwork at the Handicraft Guild of Minneapolis from about 1907 to 1909. Donaldson moved to Pasadena, where in 1912, he was named head of the art department at the Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles, and in 1919 he joined the faculty of Otis Art Institute. He also opened a summer school with courses in decorative design and color theory. Throughout the 1910s, Donaldson exhibited jewelry, hammered copper vessels, and enamels at exhibitions in Minneapolis, Chicago, and Boston. He and his wife, Louise (who had also studied and taught at the Handicraft Guild), selected and installed the display of applied arts by Southern California artists at the Panama-California Exposition in San Diego (1915), where an enameled and jeweled silver-gilt chalice by Donaldson received a gold medal. This charger represents Donaldson at the height of his artistic abilities, with its elaborate repoussé beading, scrolled cabochons set with semi-precious stones, and central medallion of cloisonné enamel. It also represents the lasting impact of British Arts and Crafts traditions across the United States.
