Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795)

Wedgwood's success based on ability to make good quality wares and to cater for a defined market: knowing what people wanted to buy. Perfected creamware, an earthenware material used for making dinner sets. With royal patronage, it was labelled Queen's ware. Became one of the most successful industrial ceramic wares. Invented Jasperware, a fine stoneware used for vessels in the Neo-Classical style (18th-c designs still produced today).

Wedgwood transformed a country craft into an efficient industry, balancing economic restraints against innovative technologies and good design. Early on, he was aware of need for marketing strategies and advertising: pioneer of modern marketing techniques. He understood that 'ornamentation was good business'. London showroom, pattern books, catalogues. Marketed "good taste" to the masses by ensuring technical excellence and stylishness in his products. Exported to USA. wedgwood.co.uk
www-libraries.colorado.edu/ps/spc/exhibits/past/Discoverers/discoverers.htm
netcentral.co.uk/steveb/potters/wedgwood.htm
Search Google for "Josiah Wedgwood"

Josiah Spode (1733-1797)

Wedgwood's rival, who claim to the the 'original' manufacturers of Fine China. Josiah Spode, like Wedgwood, was a great innovator. He developed several processes including a superior formula for Fine Bone China, and the development of the process of laying a blue underglaze. One of their most popular styles, Willow, is a classic example of Chinoiserie.
http://www.spode.co.uk/history/museum.html
www.rubylane.com/ni/shops/cadillacjack/iteml/394

Once the process of transfer printing designs was developed (allowing effective mass production), a great number of manufacturers sprung up. Rather than a handpainted luxury for the upper classes, dinnerware became far more affordable. From Spode's original Willow pattern, many spin-offs developed. These are often called the "Blue and White" style, of which there are hundreds of manufacturers and patterns. Some of these have been continuously produced for over two centuries.

Thomas Chippendale (1718-1779)

Thomas Chippendale reorganised furniture production by giving workers increasingly specialised tasks, by making production methods more efficient, and by integrating marketing into production; but mass production was achieved later, in the 19th-c. Furniture design strongly influenced by architecture: Classical, Rococo, Chinoiserie, Gothic etc. Decoration of structure was important because "ornament signifies wealth" (Ibid) - concept of status and respectability as a commodity. Chippendale supplied furniture and an interior design service to his customers: an integrated service.
www.harewood.org/chippendale/index2.htm
www.britainexpress.com/History/bio/chippendale.htm
Search Google for "Thomas Chippendale"

Matthew Boulton (1728-1809)

Matthew Boulton commercialised the metal industry. He adopted new technology of steam power for his factory, which also influenced the industrialisation of textiles. He combined manufacture and merchandising under one roof. Like Wegdwood, Boulton consistently imporved techniques and products, making a wide range of products of high standard in various materials including polished steel jewellery, silver-plated cutlery. metal buttons, buckles, tools, trinkets etc. His works include Rococo and Neoclassical pieces.
www.virtualbrum.co.uk/history/brum6.htm
riverterrace.co.uk/pages/metalware/oldsheffield/m_osp_001.html
Search Google for "Matthew Boulton"

Michael Thonet (1796 - 1871)

It's so difficult to fit Michael Thonet into a neat little box because he was in so many way apart from his time. I've put him in Design Pioneers as his early designs influenced Modernism in their simplicity. Le Corbusier used Thonet's bentwood chairs in his houses and over 40 million Thonet chairs have been produced.

His processes for bending wood and the idea of interchangeable components and flatpacking have been among the most influential ideas in modern furniture production and design.

www.architonic.com/webDesMusEn/Michael_Thonet_10809.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Thonet
Google search "Michael Thonet"

• Social Revolution
  Google.com image search for Industrial Revolution
  www.hud.ac.uk/schools/library/hip/design/lecture/indrev.html
• Rise of the Middle Class
• Increased leisure time
• The development of the 'consumer' and targetted marketing
• Urbanisation - people moved to cities and towns for jobs in Industry
• Textiles and fashion were also changing very significantly during this period.
  www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Textiles.htm
  dept.kent.edu/museum/exhibit/eye/eye.htm
  

Some key technical innovations:

• Thomas Newcomen's steam engine (1712)
• Printing Presses improved, mass publication possible
• Plaster of Paris used as a material, and to make moulded copies
• Transfer printing - allows china patterns to be duplicated effectively
• Abraham Darby's Cast Iron (1709)
• John Kay's flying shuttle weaving machine (1733)
• Nasmyth's steam hammer (1739)
• James Watt's double-action steam engine (1765)
• James Hargreaves' 'Spinning Jenny' (1764)
  www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TEXjenny.htm
• Arkwright's water-frame for spinning cotton (1769-75)
• Watt's sun and planet gear (1788)
• The Jacquard loom (1799)

Meanwhile, in Fine Art:

• Baroque (1650-1750's)
• Romanticism and Classicism