© 1999 by Design History Society
Plan and Control: Design and the Competitive Spirit in Early and Mid-Eighteenth-Century England
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Abstract |
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This article is intended to serve as a brief exploratory account of the part played by design in the emergence of aggressively competitive economic conditions in mid–eighteenth–century England. My aim is to suggest some fresh directions for the study of design in the somewhat neglected decades before the rise of entrepreneurs such as Wedgwood and Boulton. Although much emphasis is upon the construction of broad perspectives, I include reflections upon numerous fields: architecture, sculpture, cabinet-making, wallpaper design and boat–building. The scope of my concern ranges from issues with a direct and obvious bearing upon the development of design, such as the rise in the market for ‘made easy’ guides to drawing in perspective, to the analysis of those general cultural factors which set the framework in which design could thrive. In my study of this latter issue I turn my attention to numerous fields of cultural history—from the growth of retail demand for a variety of goods, to changes in the theological debate concerning the legitimacy of pleasure.
Key Words: design • economy • eighteenth-century England • manufacture • trade