20th Century Ceramic Designers in Britain


Book Description

The first publication to focus on individual designers in ceramics over the whole 20th century. Covers all the major female designers with up to date findings. Also some male designers previously almost undocumented.




Miller's Twentieth-century Ceramics


Book Description

This guide -- the first to cover a wide range of 20th-century North American and British ceramics factories in detail -- explores over 200 factories, covering pre-war designers, the innovative designs of the 1950s and 1960s and collectables of the future. Ellen Paul Denker is a museum consultant and researches, plans, and coordinates exhibitions all over the USA.




Designing Modern Britain


Book Description

Employing numerous examples of classic British design, Designing Modern Britain delves into the history of British design culture, and thereby tracks the evolution of the British national identity.







Art Deco Ceramics


Book Description

An explosion of new ceramic design in the late 1920s and early 1930s introduced vibrant colours and dramatic angular shapes to the breakfast tables of Britain and the world. This book includes information on how to identify and date ceramics at a glance and features all the major designers including Clarice Cliff, Susie Cooper and Charlotte Rhead.




The Ceramic Art of James Tower


Book Description

James Tower (1919-88) is widely regarded as one of the most distinctive figures in post-war British ceramics. Since his death over 20 years ago, his work has been often cited for its dramatic visual qualities, its subtle exploration of the boundaries of art and craft, and its lyrical integration of references to nature and the cosmos into an essentially abstract language of form and surface decoration. This is the first single publication to be devoted to his work and will reveal to a new audience the extraordinary range and quality of his achievement. Tower's career was unusual in inhabiting the worlds of fine art and ceramics which, in the 1950s and 1960s, still had only a low level of inter-penetration. Teaching at Corsham brought him into contact with some of the pioneering painters of post-war abstraction, including William Scott, Peter Lanyon and Howard Hodgkin, and as a potter Tower showed his work alongside Bernard Leach and Lucie Rie, contributing to a re-definition of modern craft. During the 1960s and 1970s he worked in white terra cotta and bronze, representing a diversity of sculptural practice during a period in which sculptors such as Anthony Caro and Phillip King were experimenting with new materials. From the late 1970s until his death, Tower concentrated again on glazed ceramic forms and was a highly original contributor to the 'New Ceramics'. This book provides a comprehensive visual document of Tower's work, incorporating a complete illustrated catalogue. It includes a detailed and authoritative biography, setting Tower in the social and artistic context in which he lived and worked.




Majolica Mania


Book Description

The first comprehensive study of the most important ceramic innovation of the 19th century Colorful, wildly imaginative, and technically innovative, majolica was functional and aesthetic ceramic ware. Its subject matter reflects a range of 19th-century preoccupations, from botany and zoology to popular humor and the macabre. Majolica Mania examines the medium’s considerable impact, from wares used in domestic settings to monumental pieces at the World’s Fairs. Essays by international experts address the extensive output of the originators and manufacturers in England—including Minton, Wedgwood, and George Jones—and the migration of English craftsmen to the U.S. New research including information on important American makers in New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia is also featured. Fully illustrated, the book is enlivened by new photography of pieces from major museums and private collections in the U.S. and Great Britain.




Alla Moda


Book Description




New Wave Clay


Book Description

New Wave Clay unpicks the zeitgeist and aesthetic of an exciting discipline with intelligence, insight and indulgence. Against the backdrop of the digital age and shiny screens, a whole new generation of craftspeople, designers and artists are realizing the pleasure of working with clay and bringing a fresh perspective to the material. Today, there is a lively crossover between craft, design, sculpture and technology that is rethinking ceramics: what you can make with it, what it looks like and who makes it. New Wave Clay is a global survey of 55 imaginative ceramicists that are leading this craft revival. They include classically trained potters who create design-led pieces, product designers who use clay as a means of creative expression, as well as fine artists, architects, decorators, illustrators, sculptors and graphic designers. Their collective output goes far beyond pots into ceramic furniture, sculpture, murals, wall reliefs, small-scale architecture and 3D printing. The book is divided into four thematic sections and features special contributions from Edmund de Waal, Hella Jongerius, Grayson Perry, Martin Brudnizki and Sarah Griffin discussing craft, industry, ornament, decorating and collecting. New Wave Clay is an image-led, dynamic study of the exciting new generation jumpstarting this age-old art. Features - A 296-page survey of 55 international ceramicists who bridge the worlds of product design, interiors, fine art and luxury craftsmanship. - Four thematic chapters are accompanied by interviews and written contributions on the subject from designers, decorators and collectors. - Richly illustrated, New Wave Clay is an image-led, dynamic book that aims to demonstrate the contemporary condition of this age-old art. - Instead of focusing on traditional craft ware and functional pieces, this title focuses on the community of ceramicists who create design-led works.




Art Deco


Book Description

Although usually associated with the 1920s and the '30s, in fact the Art Deco style had begun to emerge in France prior to the advent of the First World War. But it was during the interwar years that the style, reaching full maturity, was adopted by the international elite as the perfect expression of modern opulence and elegance, and to this day Art Deco designs are redolent of the age of Jazz, cocktails, the Charleston, speakeasies, Hollywood glamour, New York skyscrapers and, above all, style. The '20s was also a period of great technological advances in engineering and transportation, and the perpetual modernity and futuristic aura of Art Deco are evocative of this too. Here, BBC Antiques Roadshow expert Eric Knowles provides a lavishly illustrated guide to this most alluring and timeless of styles.