There is a set of tiles at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery that illustrate the global history of ceramic production from prehistoric times to the rise of Wedgwood and industrial manufactures. They were designed by the French-born ceramicist, Marc-Louis-Emmanuel Solon and produced around 1878 by the Campbell Brick & Tile Company, a branch of Minton, the Staffordshire ceramics factory. Displayed at the 1878 International Exhibition in Paris, they are a significant survival since very few sets of these tiles were subsequently produced. Using previously unpublished or understudied sources we can trace the origins of the tile sequences and their reception to unpick the complex history of the sets. The iconographic detail of the tiles would have been meaningful to a mid-19th century historian of ceramics such as Solon. Their subject matter also provides a useful lens through which to view mid-19th century scholarship on the history of global ceramics.
Simon Spier
Munstead Wood, home of the celebrated gardener Gertrude Jekyll (1843–1932), holds deep significance as the place where her ideal of the ‘artist-gardener’ achieved complete expression. Jekyll’s ideas on combining colours in the flower border and her innovative use of plant texture and form were highly influential in her lifetime and are still appreciated today. However, gardening was just one aspect of her artistry; Jekyll’s design and making encompassed several branches of the decorative arts as well as interior design schemes. Exploring these many and varied elements of her output provides an important context to her garden-making and builds a picture of Jekyll’s taste expressed in her interiors and furnishings at Munstead Wood, the purpose-built home where she lived for 35 years. By reconnecting Jekyll the gardener to Jekyll the artist, craftswoman and designer, this article seeks to articulate a more complete story of her artistic life and influences.
Caroline Ikin
Much has already been written about the influence of metalwork designed and made by members of the British Arts and Crafts Movement on the early designs of the American Gustav Stickley. A visit to England in 1903 clearly provided inspiration for work produced by his own firm. Crucially, he is thought to have visited the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society exhibition and the London showroom of Art Fittings Limited. Stickley purchased a number of pieces of British metalwork that not only featured in his own exhibitions in America later that year but exerted a strong influence on the early metalwork and lighting produced by his firm. In recent years, the author has been fortunate enough to gain access to many of the showroom catalogues and archive designs of the two key firms who had most effect on Stickley’s metalwork, namely the Faulkner Bronze Company and Norman and Ernest Spittle. This article aims to use this new information to shed light on the firms and designers who shaped much of Stickley’s metalwork and to highlight the surprising extent to which their designs were appropriated.
David Marshall
As the President Jackson sailed into New York to great fanfare for the first time on 27 October 1940, she marked a chapter in the resurgence of the United States’ merchant marine, and the rejuvenation of American President Lines’ (APL) round-the-world service. From New York, the Jackson would carry up to 97 passengers in first class accommodations to over a dozen ports, including Havana, San Francisco, Kobe, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Bombay. Under normal circumstances, their route would have taken them through the Mediterranean, but World War II forced a detour to South Africa. The Jackson was the first of seven identical ships that differed only in interior decoration. In this era of superliners Normandie and Queen Mary, these little liners set a benchmark for the design and furnishing of American passenger ships, with their bright, airy spaces handled almost entirely through government agencies.
Wayne Yanda
This essay explores the overlooked contribution of Carter & Co. Ltd (later Poole Pottery) to Britain’s civic and architectural identity in the twentieth century. Through tilework commissioned for schools, transport hubs, town halls, commercial buildings and more, the company helped shape the visual character of post-war public spaces. Drawing on research from the Poole Pottery Archive and case studies across the UK, the essay highlights how Carter & Co. combined industrial production with artistic collaboration, working with designers such as Peggy Angus, A.B. Read, and Ivor Kamlish. These ceramic commissions were not simply decorative, but reflected broader post-war ideas around education, community, and urban design. As many of these works are now under threat, there is a need for greater recognition of their artistic and historical value, positioning Carter & Co. as a central force in Britain’s modern civic landscape.
Helen Shaw
Oxford Gallery (1968–2001) was an important venue for the exhibition and sale of innovative woven textiles from 1968 to 1980. The gallery’s ground-breaking work with studio ceramics has been well documented but its active presence as a site to enjoy, and buy, high quality original textiles is less known. The gallery’s pioneering work in this field is shown through focusing on the work of six influential artist weavers who played an active part in its first 18 years: Tadek Beutlich, Archie Brennan, Peter Collingwood, Mary Farmer, Theo Moorman and Ann Sutton. All had major shows in Oxford during the period, with some enjoying additional, regular presence there through works being commissioned or bought for retail. The article explores each artist and designer’s influential careers in, and contribution to, the art of textiles, in the context of Oxford Gallery’s support for ‘the extraordinary creative strength of the crafts people who pioneered… the field in which fine arts and design meet’.
Amanda Game
This article grew out of a discussion about how the Decorative Arts Society should celebrate its 50th anniversary. Michael Whiteway had long been recognised as a pioneering dealer in nineteenth-century design, and it was agreed that the Society’s Golden Jubilee was an appropriate moment to acknowledge his considerable contribution. At the same time, the authors wished to place Michael’s career within the broader context of a market that flourished around him during the decades following the 1970s. During 2024, informal interviews were carried out with Michael and others who were part of his story. It soon became clear that Michael’s declining health necessitated the rapid completion of this work, which we had wanted him to enjoy. Michael lived to read, comment on and approve this text. What follows is a tribute to a pioneering dealer, mentor and friend.
Charlotte Gere and Martin Levy
