Imagining Consumers

Imagining Consumers

Author: Regina Lee Blaszczyk

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2020-03-24

Total Pages: 420

ISBN-13: 1421437252

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Winner of the Hagley Prize in Business History from The Hagley Museum and Library and the Business History ConferenceSelected by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title Originally published in 1999. Imagining Consumers tells for the first time the story of American consumer society from the perspective of mass-market manufacturers and retailers. It relates the trials and tribulations of china and glassware producers in their contest for the hearts of the working- and middle-class women who made up more than eighty percent of those buying mass-manufactured goods by the 1920s. Based on extensive research in untapped corporate archives, Imagining Consumers supplies a fresh appraisal of the history of American business, culture, and consumerism. Case studies illuminate decision making in key firms—including the Homer Laughlin China Company, the Kohler Company, and Corning Glass Works—and consider the design and development of ubiquitous lines such as Fiesta tableware and Pyrex Ovenware.


Eva Zeisel

Eva Zeisel

Author: Pat Kirkham

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Published: 2013-10-15

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 1452129592

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Eva Zeisel was one of the twentieth century's most influential ceramicists and designers of modern housewares. Her distinctive take on modern industrial design was inspired by organic form and brought beauty and playfulness to housewares, earning her designs a beloved place in midcentury homes. This richly illustrated volume—the first-ever complete biographical account of Zeisel's life and work—presents an extensive survey of every line she ever created, all captured in gorgeous new photography, plus 28 short essays from scholars, collectors, curators, and designers. The definitive book on the grande dame of twentieth-century ceramics, this is an essential resource for anyone who appreciates modern design.


In Pursuit of Beauty

In Pursuit of Beauty

Author: Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)

Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Published: 1986

Total Pages: 513

ISBN-13: 0870994689

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"This project is the first comprehensive study of a phenomenon that not only dominated the American arts of the 1870s and 1880s, but also helped set the course of such later developments in the United States as the Arts and Crafts movement, the indigenous interpretation of Art Nouveau, and even the rise of modernism. In fact, the early history of the Metropolitan--its founding, its sponsorship of a school of industrial design, and its display of decorative works--is inextricably tied to the Aesthetic movement and its educational goals. "In Pursuit of Beauty: Americans and the Aesthetic Movement" comprised some 175 objects including furniture, metalwork, stained glass, ceramics, textiles, wallpaper, painting, and sculpture. Some of these had rarely been displayed; others, although familiar, were being shown in new and even startling contexts. The exhibition and catalogue are arranged thematically to illustrate both the major styles of a visually rich movement and the ideas that generated its diversity"--From publisher's description.


Homer Laughlin: Decades of Dinnerware

Homer Laughlin: Decades of Dinnerware

Author: Bob Page

Publisher: Page/Frederiksen Publishing Company

Published: 2003-01-01

Total Pages: 559

ISBN-13: 9781889977133

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book contains almost 4,000 Homer Laughlin dinnerware patterns in full color, plus hundreds of additional photographs, advertisements, pamphlets, and the history of The Homer Laughlin China Company and its dinnerware. Represented are dinnerware patterns from pre-1900 to current Fiesta? patterns and everything in between.