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Books > Arts & Architecture > History of art / art & design styles > 1800 to 1900 > Arts & crafts design
The Arts and Crafts Movement was a reaction to the brutality of
working life and the sterility of industrial design in Victorian
Britain. Although Arts and Crafts was initially a mediaeval
revival, the movement was always about the artist craftsman and the
appropriate use of materials, rather than any single design
tradition. The movement was inspired and led by William Morris,
whose company was founded in 1861 and produced a full range of
interior furnishings, including tiles. These were designed by
Morris himself, and also by leading artists and architects of the
day such as Edward Burne Jones and Philip Webb. The term Arts and
Crafts was formalised in the late 1880s, and many designers,
artists and craftsmen joined Morris in this new movement, and
leading designers including Walter Crane and C. F. A. Voysey
produced distinctive and now highly collectable ceramic tiles that
were used to decorate the bathrooms and the fireplaces of the
wealthy and discerning. This book, with its companion on the work
of William de Morgan, is the first complete introduction to British
Arts and Crafts tiles from 1860 to 1920.
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