The British Are Coming: A Revolution in 20th-Century American Tableware Design

You are invited to join the Connecticut Ceramics Circle on Monday, March 10 at 2:00 p.m. for Stephen Harrison’s colorfully illustrated exploration of modern American dining, as the design historian delves into the diverse mix of foreign and domestic design influences that guided American consumer choicethroughout the 20th century. From Lenox to Noritake, Limoges to Waterford and Wedgwood, “The British Are Coming” tells the story of the enduring popularity of British design in American domestic settings against a backdrop of two world wars, countless world’s fairs and expositions, and the constant push and pull of supply and demand.

Stephen Harrison is the Director and Chief Curator of the Munson Museum of Art in Utica, New York, where he is responsible for all curatorial, interpretive, and exhibition related operations. Since coming to Munson, Mr. Harrison has initiated a complete reinstallation of the Museum of Art galleries, initiated landmark acquisitions, and curated numerous exhibitions. Mr. Harrison joined Munson after a distinguished career as curator of decorative art and design at the Cleveland Museum of Art, where he oversaw a premier collection of American and European design from 1500 to the present. He was also a member of the Landmarks Commission for the City of Cleveland.

A graduate of the University of Virginia, where he was a Jefferson Scholar, Mr. Harrison holds advanced degrees in historic preservation from the University of Pennsylvania and American material culture from the Winterthur Museum Program at the University of Delaware. He is the co-author of numerous scholarly publications, including 1800–1880; the award-winning Artistic Luxury: Fabergé, Tiffany, Lalique, and more recently, The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s. A former features contributor to Better Homes and Gardens, Mr. Harrison lectures widely on the subject of decorative arts and historic interiors around the world.

The lecture is Free.

Picture: Spode Stone China Tea and Coffee Wares in the ‘Lowestoft’ Pattern, England, 1925, made for the American market to resemble late eighteenth-century Chinese export porcelain.  Photo: Courtesy, Dallas Museum of Art.