"In the greater Berlin area existed around 40 machine works, as many spinning shops and associated enterprises, 35 silk factories, 22 calico-printing works, 95 cloth factories and a considerable number of chemical, carpet and oilcloth factories as well as no fewer than 31 breweries. Around 40,000 factory workers, 10% of the population, lived in Berlin, of whom around 20,000 were apprenticed of various trades and who, given the general crisis in artisan trades and the transition to mechanical mass production, had only miserable proletarian subsistence to look forward to."
"The Course of German Nationalism From Frederick the Great to Bismark 1763-1867" by Hagen Schulze Cambridge University Press 1991.
In the mid-19th c. England was the considered the land of the Industrial Revolution and with that came some of the most imaginative responses for and against it. Perhaps the first conscious event of a new relationship industrial European society had with the arts was when the first International Exposition was held in London 1851. Involved with the Expo was the German Architect Gottfried Semper, in the following year he published "Craft, Industry and Art" where he advocated the interjection of machinery in the relationship between the master artisan and the apprentice. His industrialized intention was to improve the already mainstream commercial aesthetics in manufacturing. The Expo itself prompted the construction of the (now) Victorian Albert Museum in 1852, soon followed the (now) Royal College of Art as its' adjunct, in 1857 in South Kensington. The concept of a school for artisans joined by a museum of ornamentation became known as the "South Kensington principle." However on the continent, the Museum School for Art and Industry opened in Vienna in 1864; and by 1868 it also had an adjoining applied arts school.
John Ruskin had an enormous impact on the emerging design community in England. Questioning the new cultural relationship to nature in an emerging industrialized society, he advocated a Gothic attitude toward artisan and culture, claiming that the Renaissance had begun a separation between artist and society that was now (in the mid 19th c.) in a moment of crises. He believed that artists were loosing their place in society and that urban planning, architecture and industrial manufacturing were becoming designs by engineer without aesthetic concerns. From this point of view, his concerns would evolve in the direction of social communities especially for industrial workers leading to urban Parks, or gardens in the city such as London's Regents Park, and later industrial communal "utopias" such as New Harmony Indiana (forerunners to American communities such as later Levittown PA and Radburn NJ).
In 1861 independently wealthy William Morris (1834-1896), established the art decorating firm Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Company in London. This was in response to redecorating his own "Red House" he became enlightened by the malicies the industrial Victorian Age had caused. Morris longed for the fine craft furniture design of the pre-19th c., from which he was surrounded by in his upbringing. The team eventually consisted of furniture and cabinet makers, weavers, fabric dyers, stain glass, ceramic and tile makers and Morris himself became a pattern designer. William Morris was inspired by Ruskin, upon studying Ruskins new ideas about nature and harmony within industrialized society; and his studies in the ministry and with the pre-Raphaelite painters. Like Ruskin and the pre-Raphaelites, Morris sought a revival of Gothic nature in art. He believed the pre-printing activities of the monks to be an activity closer to God, and their images of nature designed into all levels of societies visual forms. As his work was expensive, and his ideas misunderstood he organized exhibitions and Guilds to educate the public in reviving design, including the Art Worker's Guild, the Combined Arts Society and the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society. These early exhibitions featured demonstrations in lost arts such as tapestry weaving, printing with lectures on medieval manuscripts and Incunabula book designs. As early as the 1860's, the firm Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Company) quickly became established London showrooms. In these early years, through Ruskins teachings, Morris' religious concerns stretched to socialism, especially the plights of the Industrial workers. The social link between the guilds and societies was based on the idea that artistic communities, in harmony with nature, were for the common good, and should be available for all English citizens. He formed "Anti-Scrape" the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and the "Society for Checking the Abuses of Public Advertising" in which he "confronted offenders directly."
Morris' greatest contribution would eventually be in area of book design, with his "masterpiece" Chaucers "Canteberry Tales." Without Morris' influence, today, we may very likely not have the option to pay more for a hard cover book.
In 1865 children's book illustrator and writer, Walter Crane, publishes Railroad Alphabet. Crane is the first artisan known to be influenced by Japanese Prints, the children who read his books were influenced enough to create art nouveaux, post-impressionism and bridge the Victorian illustration into modern image.
While William Morris might be the most famous proponent of an alternative to manufactured objects, he was far from alone with this idea. Schools, Museums and Guilds in many European Cities and several American cities institutionalized the growing lost arts of both artists and artisans.
"Such potent ideas of aesthetic rejuvenation underlay many aspects of the Arts + Crafts movement at the turn of this century. Although it originated in England during the 1860's, the movement soon became international and served diverse regional functions... Eventually, it addressed the problem of the designer's role in the industrial context, especially in Germany."
It was at this time (1860's) the Metropolitan Museum of Art was conceived (built in 1870). The Museum objectives were for the purpose of:
"..encouraging and developing the study of the fine arts, and the application of arts to manufacture and practical life, of advancing the general knowledge of kindred subjects, and, to that end, of furnishing popular instruction and recreation." Annual Reports of the Trustees of the MMA, 1871.
The following year the report continued the Museum objective naming the "South Kensington principle" which they called "a representative Museum of Fine Art applied to industry." These became standard criteria statements for funding seeking museums attempting to "raise the level of public taste among artisans and manufacturers, as well as consumers." Therefore museums early modest acquisitions consisted of gems, gold and silver work, bronzes and other metal-work, household decorations, such as paper hangings, pressed leather, furniture, etc., textile fabrics, bookbinding, laces, dyes, stained glass, etc. The first free classes the Museum would offer were in wood and metalwork. By 1881 the Trustees would recognize "the time has certainly arrived when America should cease to be dependent upon foreign production of beautiful works in any and every department of Industry... If American industrial art is to rank with that of European countries, it can only be by having educated artisans." Students ranged from beginners, to school teachers, to professional artisans, and all students had direct access to the museum collection facilitating their studies. By 1894 however, the school closed never to be reopened.
The 19th c. would only provide the seeds for the bridge of artisan into the modern industrial designer. These ideas of elevating the industrial artisan to the level of the fine wouldn't be fully realized until Weimer, or of course, the Bauhaus School of Art and Design (1919-1933). Europe would only partially tolerate such industrial theories; while the American Landscape would embrace these industrial designers and architects with the Chicago International Style, Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius (and many others). America would allow these Europeans to apply their manifestos of "truth to materials", "form following function" and "art and technology, a new unity" into everything from chair design, books and the media, to airports, skyscrapers and community planning. As well the dislocated European Bauhaus faculty and students taught their "universal" and "utopian" principles at top design schools and ivy league Universities, permanently drafting them into the American art and design thought process.
CL Tiffany and John B Young opened a dry goods shop on Broadway in 1837; later known as Tiffany & Co. after 1853. The firm gradually emerged as a manufacturing enterprise. It's first truly innovative motifs were near and far eastern inspired. About 1876, Japanese inspired silver came into vogue, in fact an English designer (Christopher Dresser) represented Tiffany on an 1876 tour of Japan. Tiffany & Co. wouldn't reach full maturity until 1900 winning 3 grand prix metals at the Universal Exhibition in Paris, two years before Tiffany's' death.
The Estonian Russian Gustav Fabergé founded Fabergé in 1842. Originally dealing in conventional wares, but his sons, Peter Carl and Agatha turned it toward bibelots, or objects of fantasy. Branches soon opened in Moscow, Kiev Odessa and London. The Imperial Easter Egg tradition of the tsar (giving to his wife and mother) began in 1884 when Alexander III sought to please his Dutch wife with something reminiscent of her childhood.
1. The History of Graphic Design by Philip Meggs
2. Design in America, the Cranbrook Vision, Introduction by Robert Judson Clark
3. The Landscape in History by Phillip Pregill and Nancy Volkman
4. Modern Design in the Metropolitan Museum of Art by R. Graig Miller.
5. Walters Museum, Perminent Decorative Arts Exhibit,
Baltimore MD.