Public Lecture Course:
Ceramics in Britain, 1750 to now
These 30-minute lectures delivered by experts in the field will explore five key influential developments in the history of British ceramics since the mid-18th century, examining the multiple ways in which innovators, entrepreneurs, and artists have reinvigorated the field.
Lectures will be released weekly from 5 November to 3 December 2020.
Pots with Attitude: British Satire on Ceramics 1750–1820
Recommended reading and resources:
Danielle Thom, ‘’Sawney’s Defence’: Anti-Catholicism, Consumption and Performance in 18th-Century Britain’, V&A Online Journal, Issue No. 7, Summer 2015. http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/journals/research-journal/issue-no.-7-autumn-2015/sawneys-defence-anti-catholicism,-consumption-and-performance-in-18th-century-britain/
Learn more about transferware and British pottery at the Transferware Collectors Club and the Northern Ceramic Society.
Josiah Wedgwood Experimentation and Innovation
Recommended readings and resources:
View the Portland Vase online at the British Museum.
Wikipedia. ‘Glossary of pottery terms.’ Last modified 21 September 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_pottery_terms
Wikipedia. ‘Josiah Wedgwood.’ Last modified 27 September 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Wedgwood
Learn more about the origins and history of the Lunar Society at The Lunar Society.
'Blue and White' in Nineteenth-Century Britain and Beyond
Recommended readings and resources:
Printed British Pottery & Porcelain 1750-1900: A Remarkable Story. Transferware Collectors Club and the Northern Ceramic Society. http://printedbritishpotteryandporcelain.com/
View highlights from the exhibition, Filthy Lucre: Whistler’s Peacock Room Reimagined online at the V&A.
‘Beyond East and West’: the founding of British Studio ceramics
Recommended readings and resources:
Wikipedia. ‘Bernard Leach’. Last modified 26 October 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Leach
Wikipedia. ‘Shoji Hamada’. Last modified 12 July 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%8Dji_Hamada
Isabella Smith, ‘Wheel of fortune – the life and achievements of Bernard Leach’, Apollo Magazine, 18 July 2020. https://www.apollo-magazine.com/bernard-leach-centenary/
Find out more about the Leach Pottery.
Obsolescence and Renewal: Reimagining North Staffordshire’s Ceramic Heritage
Recommended readings and resources:
BBC: Stoke and Staffordshire. ‘Wedgwood in Indonesia’. BBC. 24 September 2014. http://www.bbc.co.uk/stoke/content/image_galleries/wedgwood_indonesia_gallery.shtml?8
BBC News. ‘Up to 1,000 ceramics jobs axed’. BBC. 13 February 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1818671.stm