Eight Designs for Decorated Cups, including Boabdil Pattern 1845 - 1855

Alfred Henry Forrester made these eight watercolor designs for decorated cups on paper at an unknown date. Forrester was working in England at a time when industrialization was transforming design and manufacturing processes. Consider the potential impact of industrialization on the decorative arts. Designs like these could be mass-produced and transferred onto ceramics using new technologies. The "Boabdil Pattern" specifically evokes a Moorish aesthetic, tapping into the 19th-century fascination with exoticism and historical styles. The cups themselves suggest a rising middle class with disposable income to spend on consumer goods. Looking at these designs, we can imagine how new technologies, global trade, and shifting social structures were influencing artistic production. By consulting design catalogs, trade publications, and historical accounts, we can further understand the social life of these objects and the world in which they were created.