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Linen patterned enamel boxes: undervalued processes and aesthetics of an eighteenth-century Midland ‘toy’ trade by Dr John Grayson.THIS IS A HYBRID EVENT
The synthesis of art, science and technology was central to manufacturing in eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Birmingham and South Staffordshire. For consumers of this period, novelty through decoration and form was important. The enamel trade exemplified this, making 'toys' such as snuffboxes and bonbonnières. They manufactured a paper-thin copper form, coated with decorative enamel using a process similar to the ceramics trade, and finished with guilt-metal edging or hinged mounts.
The minimal literature on the trade predominates from the twentieth century: scholars privileged artistry of painting and technological advancement of transfer printing as the indicators of importance. Decorating techniques considered simplistic were dismissed. Authors assumed a short-lived manufactory in Battersea, Surrey (1753-56), produced high-quality enamels, and Midlands’s workshops the unsophisticated ware. Later writing disproved this and identified the importance of Midlands but still adopted a similar outmoded connoisseurship approach to investigation.
This lecture considers one of the hitherto disregarded object types, the textile patterned boxes. The process appears to have used textiles as a stencil through which enamel powder—often reds, greens, pinks and yellows—were pounced (sprinkled) onto a different coloured enamel ground. Once fired, it created a beautiful delicate pattern that was then further embellished using other enamel techniques. The process was assumed to be quick and cheap and indicative of production in the twilight of the trade.
I reconsider these boxes by adopting a material turn—analysis of museum artefacts combined with craft making. First, I will describe a new understanding of the production method and challenge the assumption of simplicity. Then, present an analysis and comparison of object decoration, describing the juxtaposition of the textile motif with other seemingly ‘sophisticated’ techniques, asking why they were juxtaposed on one object? And whether it was indeed deployed to make a quick background pattern or to emulate textiles for a defined audience. Through this, I reveal a new understanding of what perhaps drove aesthetic decision making in the trade, telling a new narrative on utilisation of different embellishment techniques to create wondrous decorative surfaces.
Dr John Grayson is Senior Lecturer, Foundation Art and Design, in the School of Digital, Technologies and Arts, Staffordshire University. Before this, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Faculty of Arts, Design and Media, Birmingham City University. He is an Honorary Research Fellow, University of Birmingham; advisory group member for the Centre for Printing History and Culture (CPHC) and the History of the Printed Image Network (HoPIN); and, is an internationally exhibited craft maker. His research interfaces the fields of contemporary craft and the history of material culture, exploring eighteenth-century enamel trades of Birmingham and South Staffordshire. Using making as enquiry, he has investigated significant enamel collections, including Wolverhampton Art Gallery, the V&A, and the Museum of London. Exhibition and publication have included Enamel | Substrate, a touring exhibition for Ruthin Craft Centre (2018-19), and Imperfect Printed Enamel Surfaces, Midland History journal (2020). His craft and research interests have recently expanded to include early transfer printing in the ceramics trade, working with the Museum of Royal Worcester on a public engagement project.
http://twitter.com@jgraysondesign
http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/directory/maker/john-grayson
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
1 Jennens Road,,Birmingham,B4 7PS,GB, United Kingdom
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