Designs for an Urn on a Pedestal and a Cachepot 19th century

This design for an urn on a pedestal and a cachepot was created by an anonymous artist. Graphite on paper is all we see here, but the envisioned finished product would have been something quite different: made of fired clay, probably laboriously slip-cast from molds, perhaps enhanced with paint or metallic leaf. The paper support provides a sharp contrast to the implied weight of the urn; the material suggests a delicacy at odds with its envisioned use as a vessel for plants, or even for cremated remains. What we are seeing here is the industrialization of taste. Before, ceramicists would have been sculptors. Now, they’re fabricators. The drawing would have been passed on to a workshop of relatively low-skilled laborers, who would never have seen the entire design. The sketch here gives us a window into an important social development: the rise of design as a specialized field, distinct from making, and the consequent division of labor. It’s a reminder that even the most beautiful things have a social context.