The Arts and Crafts Movement

Craft, design and social life belong together in T. J. Cobden-Sanderson's account of the Arts and Crafts movement. He traces the formation of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society and its first London exhibition in 1888, explaining how bringing different kinds of work under one roof widened public ideas of art. His account gives particular attention to lectures by working designers and craftspeople, including William Morris, Emery Walker and Walter Crane.

Printing and bookbinding sit beside textiles, furniture and glass as ways of expressing imagination through materials. Cobden-Sanderson connects knowledge of a craft's processes with recognition for the people who make things. His argument then reaches beyond individual objects to the planning of cities and the organization of everyday life. Readers interested in design history will find both an account of an exhibition society and a broad argument for creativity as a social purpose.