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

该项目探讨了Wedgwood作为一家商业公司如何以及为什么在20世纪中期通过其生产和消费积极塑造公众和专业对“好设计”的理解。这个研究项目将研究公司如何以及为什么参与这些关于“好设计”的讨论，他们如何在国内和国际上定位自己，他们的代表是哪些相关机构的成员，以及他们如何通过他们作为公司代表在贸易圈中的角色贡献和塑造辩论。它试图确定这是如何反映在公司政治和产品设计以及消费实践。该项目将询问从第二次世界大战之前（从1936年的“Hambleden报告”开始，该报告引发了1948年RCA的重组）到1986年Arthur Bryan退休的时期（该公司的第一位非家族主席，于1967年接替Josiah V）。这一时期也包括了一个快速的商业扩张和许多较小的陶瓷公司合并的时期。这将位于国际和当代背景下，研究来自其他进步的英国，德国，斯堪的纳维亚和美国制造商的产品和公司政治的代表性例子，例如Midwinter（作为Meakin品牌的一部分，于1970年被Wedgwood收购），Rosenthal, Arabia（今天，作为菲斯卡斯拥有的Iittala集团的一部分，自2015年起成为Wedgwood集团的所有者）和美国的Lenox。

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.