This four-volume edition of primary source materials documents the histories of design across the long nineteenth century. Each volume is arranged by appropriate sub-themes and it is the first set of primary sources to be gathered together in this comprehensive and accessible format.

Design refers to more than simply products and personalities or even cultural ideas, it involves consideration of ways of design thinking and applications as well as the philosophies and the other disciplines that impinge upon it. Here, the first volume discusses the theories and discourses that underpinned nineteenth-century design, ranging from design reform to aesthetics, and from the question of ornament to design education. The second volume looks at the designed objects, images and spaces that were created in the period. These include discussion of design in interiors, industry, fashion, graphics and architecture amongst others. The third volume considers the issues of design production and practices including debates about the role of machine and craft and the impact of new materials and technologies. The last volume looks at actors, intermediaries and mediators associated with the design domain. Taken together these sources, with their contextual introductions and headnotes, present a valuable overview of a broadly defined design culture during the long nineteenth century.

The volumes will be of interest to a range of scholars and students, including those in art and design history, visual culture, and nineteenth-century material culture. They will also be of interest to a broad range of scholars working in areas including aesthetics, gender, politics and philosophy.

Book Extracts

Nineteenth-Century Design Networks, Mediators and Design (Primary Sources)

Volume 4

Introduction - Actors, Mediators, and Design 

Part 1. Design Movements

1. William Gershom Collingwood, ‘Present Day’, The Philosophy of Ornament: Eight Lectures, (George Allen: Orpington, 1883), pp. 200-216.

2. George C. Haité, ‘On the Design and Designers of the Victorian Reign (Part One)’ Architectural Review, 2, June 1897, pp. 81-89. 

3. George C. Haité, ‘On the Design and Designers of the Victorian Reign (Part Two)’ Architectural Review, 2, June 1897, pp. 141-146 

4. May Morris, ‘Decorative Art 1800-1885’, in H D. Traill (Ed.) Social England: A Record of the Progress of the People; in Religion, Laws, Learning, Arts, Industry, Commerce, Science, Literature and Manners, From the Earliest Times to the Present Day, Vol 6 (London: Cassell, 1897), pp. 526-40. 

Part 2. Professional Mediators

5. W. Cooke-Taylor, Report of a Special Committee of the Council of the Government School of Design (London: Printed by William Clowes and Sons, for Her Majesty’s Stationery office, 1847), pp. 138-40. 

6. [Anon] ‘The Architect Versus the Cabinet Maker and Others’, Fine Arts Journal, 13 February 1847, pp. 228-229

7. George Aitchison ‘The Relation of the Architect to the Decorator’, British Architect, 16 Feb- 6 April 1883, pp. 78-79.

8. Cases Argued and Determined Relating to the Poor Laws, to Points in Criminal Law, and Other Subjects Chiefly Connected With the Duties and offices of Magistrates, Forming Part of Law Journal Reports (London: E.B. Ince, 1844), pp. 73-4. 

9. John D. Sedding, Art and Handicraft (London: Kegan, Paul, French, Trübner, 1893), extract, pp.126-132.

10. Fleeming Jenkin, ‘A Lecture on the Education of Civil and Mechanical Engineers in Great Britain and Abroad,’ The Education and Status of Civil Engineers, in the United Kingdom and in Foreign Countries, (London: Published by The Institution, 1870), pp. 225-231. 

11. Robert Kerr, ‘The Treatment of Scientific Engineering Artistically’, Building News and Engineering Journal, 30, 10 March 1876, pp. 241-2. 

12. [Anon] Textile Colourist, II, 9, September 1876. pp. 110-117.

Part 3. Mediators- Organisations 

13. Exhibition at the Royal Academy Architecture Room’, Civil Engineer and Architect’s Journal, Number 1, October 1837, pp. 224-5, 254-5, 287-8 

14. ‘Exhibition of British Manufactures and Decorative Arts’, Newton’s London Journal of Arts Sciences and Manufactures, 32, 1848, pp. 222-226. 

15. ‘The Art Manufacture Association’, Macphail’s Edinburgh Ecclesiastical Journal,CXlIV, June 1858, pp. 367- 377.

16. Charles R. Ashbee, ‘The Arts and Crafts Movement & Its Ethical Purpose’, Craftsmanship in Competitive Industry; Being a Record of The Workshops of the Guild of Handicraft, and some Deductions From Their Twenty-One Years' Experience(Campden, Glostershire, Essex House Press, 1908) pp. 5-16.

17. ‘Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts’, The Craftsman, (Syracuse), 4:2, May 1903, pp. 101-106. 

18. ‘Decorative Art Society’, The Art Journal, January 1847, P. 145.

19. Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson, The Arts and Crafts Movement (London: Hammersmith Publishing Society, 1905), pp. 3-8. 

Part 4. Mediators - Retailer/Shops 

20. Nathaniel Whittock, On the Construction and Decoration of the Shop Fronts of London, Illustrated With ... Coloured Representation ... by N. W. Forming An Appendix to the Decorative Painter and Glazier’s Guide, by The Same Author (London: Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper 1840), pp. 1-4.

21. ‘Valuable Advice’ [Summerley’s Art Manufacture] in G. Cruikshank, Et Al. The Comic Almanack: An Ephemeris in Jest and Earnest, Containing Merry Tales, Humorous Poetry, Quips, and Oddities (London: John Camden Hotten, 1849), pp. 276-279.

22. Alice B. Haven, ‘A Morning at Stewarts’, Godey’s Lady Book and Magazine, May 1863, pp. 429-433. 

23. Lewis F. Day, ‘Art of the Fashion-Monger’, Every-Day Art: Short Essays on the Arts Not Fine (London: B.T. Batsford, 1882) pp. 152-159. 

Part 5. Mediators- Critics and Style Debates 

24. [Anon] ‘Gothic Houses and Modern Requirements’, Gentleman’s Magazine: and Historical Review, Jan 1858, pp. 19-28. 

25. Owen Jones, ‘Gleanings from the Great Exhibition of 1851’, Journal of Design and Manufactures, V, (1851), pp. 89-93.

26. Harriet Spofford, ‘The Moorish’, Art Decoration Applied to Furniture (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1878), pp. 141-46.

27. Harriet Spofford, ‘The Eastlake’, Art Decoration Applied to Furniture (New York: Harper & Bros, 1878), pp.147-153. 

28. Walter Hamilton, The Aesthetic Movement in England, 2nd ed. (London: Reeves & Turner, 1882), pp. 124-127. 

29. John Mckean Brydon, ‘A Few More Words About Queen Anne’, American Architect, 6 October 1877, pp. 320-22. 

30. [Anon], ‘Pillory L’Art Nouveau At South Kensington’, Architectural Review, X, 1901, pp. 104-7. 

31. F. Hamilton Jackson, ‘The New Art as Seen at the Paris Exhibition’, Magazine of Art, 23 December 1900, pp. 123-130.

Part 6. Mediators – Advice Books and Journals 

32. John Stewart, ‘English Homes: as They are, and May be, in Furnishing and Decoration’, Art Journal, 56, August 1859, pp. 234-237. 

33. [Anon] ‘Mrs. Loftie in Excelsis’, British Architect and Northern Engineer, 9, February 22, 1878, P. 83. 

34. Eustace Balfour, ‘Domestic Art’, Good Words, 20, January 1879, pp. 658-662.

35. Cosmo Monkhouse, ‘The Decoration of a Home’, Magazine of Art, 5, (Jan 1882), pp. 259-264. 

36. Miss Gertrude Jekyll, ‘House Decoration’, National Review, 24:142 (Dec 1894), pp. 519-529. 

37. Mrs. Talbot Coke, ‘A Woman's Home’, Chambers’s Journal, 3:119 (10 March 1900), pp. 230-33. 

38. Samuel Carter Hall, Retrospect of a Long Life (New York: Appleton, 1883), pp. 210-224.

Part 7. Mediators- Exhibitions 

39. National Repository, ‘Catalogue for the 4th Exhibition’ (1831), Mechanics’ Magazine, XV, 395, 7 May 1831, pp. 158-9 & 14 May 1831, pp. 170-173. 

40. Matthew Digby Wyatt, A Report on the Eleventh French Exposition of the Products of Industry (London: Chapman and Hall 1849), pp. 12-15. 

41. [Anon] ‘A Warning on the French Exposition in London’, The Journal of Design and Manufactures, II, 1850, pp. 158-168.

42. Benjamin P. Johnson, Report of Benjamin P. Johnson, Agent of the State of New York, Appointed to Attend the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations, Held in London, 1851 (Albany: C. Van Benthuysen, 1852), pp. 154-163. 

43. William Burges, ‘The Japanese Court in the International Exhibition’, Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Review, Sept 1862, pp. 243-54. 

44. Society of Arts, London, Reports of Artisans Selected by a Committee ... Paris Universal Exhibition, 1867, (London, 1867), pp. 206-13. 

45. Patrick Geddes, ‘Retrospect of Exhibitions’ Industrial Exhibitions and Modern Progress (Edinburgh: D. Douglas, 1887), pp. 1-9. 

46. Walter Crane, ‘Introduction’, Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, Catalogue of The First Exhibition: The New Gallery, 121 Regent St. (London: Chiswick Press, 1888), pp. 5-10. 

47. Francis Henry Newbery, ‘The International Exhibition of Modern and Decorative Art at Turin, The English Section’, The Studio, 26, 1902, pp. 251–259.

Part 8. Mediators- Museums 

48. Charles Toplis, ‘Preliminary Notice’ Museum of National Manufactures and of The Mechanical Arts, Catalogue of The Museum of National Manufactures and of The Mechanical Arts, No. 28, Leicester Square, Established in Continuation, With Extension of the Design, of the National Repository, Formerly in the King's Mews. 1833 (London: Printed by G. Eccles, 1833). 

49. Edward Bradbury, ‘A Visit to Ruskin's Museum’, Magazine of Art, 2, 1879, pp. 57-60.