Coffee Can and Saucer c. 1800

Curator: Looking at this “Coffee Can and Saucer” from around 1800 by the Wedgwood Manufactory—it strikes me as… unexpectedly lavender. Editor: Unexpected, and perhaps deceptively simple. I find myself drawn to the materiality—ceramic, of course, mass-produced yet attempting to mimic something precious, something that declares refinement and gentility through both process and subject. Curator: Ah, the color—they call it lilac, but to me it’s pure lavender whimsy, set against those crisp white bas-reliefs of neoclassical scenes and darling little daisies. Does it speak to the absurdity of empire to you? It does to me. It whispers, “Let them drink delicately-hued coffee!” Editor: More like: consider the molds, the division of labor, the controlled firings. Wedgwood was the Henry Ford of ceramics, churning out affordable luxury for a rising merchant class hungry for status symbols. The lilac and the Neoclassical friezes become tools for social mobility—democratized exclusivity. Curator: A democratized aesthetic, absolutely. There is something touching about democratizing access to beautiful things; making some kind of aesthetic language open-source—something lovely for a pittance! Wedgwood gave us affordable dreams in lavender. Editor: Dreams subsidized, of course, by the backbreaking work of potters and decorators, and powered by raw materials extracted, transported, transformed. Neoclassicism itself isn't neutral; it references a world built on empire and enslavement. All this to drink coffee. Curator: And doesn't every great art piece involve extraction? We can ponder about empire and extraction all day but also give a glance to that lovely composition with those daisies set within blue boxes... And let us also acknowledge this cup for its very daring use of ceramic as both object and sculpture. Editor: Fair point. The object sings both elegance and utility. Perhaps what speaks most to me is that a simple coffee set becomes such a great snapshot of consumer society's rising, shining, shimmering face.