Abstract: Historians, critics, and artists have recently challenged the popular perception that things made in industrial factories and things made by hand exist at opposite ends of the craft spectrum. This article locates the source of that misconception in the mid-nineteenth century, and offers the field of industrial patternmaking as a provocative example. Using period manuals, trade magazines, and the rich collection and archive of an early twentiethcentury industrial pattern shop, this article considers the relationships of patternmakers to their craft, their products, and their co-workers to suggest more continuity with craft traditions than might be expected. Serving as a touchstone figure is Charles Rohlfs, the well-known maker of “Artistic Furniture,” who could only create his new identity as a creative individual artisan in the model of the Arts and Crafts movement by denying his earlier career as an industrial patternmaker and cast-iron stove designer.
Publication Year: 2011
Publication Date: 2011-03-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 9
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