From Our Native Clay

Résumé du livre

Ironically, it was the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century that made the concept of art pottery possible. For the most part, this body of work was produced in reaction to industry's domination of production techniques, taste, and design. The various labels of "Art Pottery," "Art Furniture," "Art Metal," etc., have their origin in mid-nineteenth century England, where Summerly's Art Manufactures, an early experiment in enlisting artists to design for industry, was perhaps the first to use the "art" prefix. But even more important was John Ruskin, who condemned artistic objects made by machines as "worthless." He was repelled by the precision and repetition of industrial production. For him, beauty lay in the variations created by the hand of an artist or craftsman. -- Introduction.