Eighteenth-Century Ceramics: Products for a Civilised Society (Studies in Design)

Numerous publications describe well the provenance of eighteenth-century ceramics. This book focuses instead on the producers and consumers of these new material goods. It explains the economic conditions, the new scientific knowledge, the social and cultural transformations which formed these products. Eighteenth-Century Ceramics places British wares in a European context. The book makes clear that British delftwares, porcelains and creamwares were produced principally by middle-class entrepreneurs for middle-class consumers. Although influenced by the continental manufactories, British ceramics developed characteristics which reinforced the values and aspirations of a complex group of people who formed the commercial, professional and new industrial middle classes. The author investigates the impact refined ceramic wares made on the social practices and imaginative lives of eighteenth-century society.