The Question of 'Good Design'. Wedgwood's Role in the Shaping of Public Taste in the 20th century (c.1936-1986)

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This project interrogates how and why Wedgwood as a commercial company actively shaped public and professional understanding of 'good design' through its production and its consumption during the mid-decades of the C20th. This research project will examine how and why the company participated in these discussions around 'good design', how they positioned themselves within them nationally and internationally, what relevant bodies its representatives were members of, and how they contributed to and shaped debates via their roles as company representatives in trade circles. It seeks to establish how this was reflected in company politics and product design together with consumption practices. The project will interrogate a period spanning from before the Second World War (beginning with the 'Hambleden Report' of 1936, which triggered the restructuring of the RCA in 1948) to the retirement of Arthur Bryan in 1986 (the first non-family chairman of the company, who had taken over from Josiah V in 1967). This period also encompassed a time of rapid business expansion and the amalgamation of many smaller ceramic firms. This will be located in an international and contemporary context, looking at representative examples of products and company politics from other progressive British, German, Scandinavian, and US-American manufacturers, such as for example Midwinter (as part of the Meakin brand taken over by Wedgwood in 1970), Rosenthal, Arabia (today, as part of the Iittala group owned by Fiskars - owners of the Wedgwood group since 2015) and Lenox in the United States.