Incense Burner c. 1830

This ceramic incense burner was made in Staffordshire, a region of England known for its pottery. It typifies the kind of popular decorative objects produced in the 19th century, but it can also tell us about the social life of the period. Images of domesticity became fashionable in the 1800s, and the cottage, here adorned with colorful flowers, projected ideas of comfort and security. This burner would have been placed on a mantelpiece to provide a genteel aroma. The industrial revolution transformed the Staffordshire region with new factory systems and technologies. Pottery became a major trade, as entrepreneurs targeted middle-class consumers. The visual style is deliberately folksy, but it’s a commodity made possible by modern economics. Historians consult trade records, museum collections, and design catalogues to better understand the production and consumption of such objects. This burner is an interesting example of how industry manufactured nostalgia for a pre-industrial past.