The Alchemist of Copper and Light In the shifting landscape of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as the relentless gears of industrialization began to reshape the Western world, a profound yearning emerged for the tactile, the handcrafted, and the soulful. It was within this evocative era of transition that John Pearson (often associated with the name John Peirson) emerged not merely as a craftsman, but as an alchemist of form. His work, particularly his shimmering copper plaques found in the Newlyn Art Gallery in Cornwall, stands as a testament to a period when artists soug…