Rebecca Klarner

The Question of ‘Good Design’ – Wedgwood’s Role in the Shaping of Public Taste in the 20^th century (c. 1936–1986)

I am an art historian, specialised in European decorative arts, focussing on ceramics. I am interested in the making and disseminating of objects, the creation of meaning in different contexts, as well as the international transfer of knowledge, skills, and ideas. My research spans the 18^th to 20^th centuries.

I trained as a goldsmith in Germany through a traditional apprenticeship and gained my undergraduate degree and then MA in History of Art and English Linguistics at the University of Cologne. I am Assistant Curator at the V&A Wedgwood Collection in Stoke-on-Trent and since 2021 have been conducting my PhD project on a part-time basis as a Collaborative Doctoral Partnership. I am founder and co-convenor of the Emerging Scholars Group of the French Porcelain Society.

My supervisors are Professor Abigail Harrison Moore, University of Leeds, and Dr Spike Sweeting, V&A.

Selected publications

More than just Numbers: Josiah Wedgwood’s Ceramic Trials. In: Neil Brownsword, Alchemy and Metamorphosis, exhibition catalogue, 2021, pp. 44-59.

Ceramics as a Canvas. Wedgwood blanks as an intersection between fine and decorative arts and the legacy of the Lessore family, with a special focus on Elaine Thérèse Lessore (1884-1945). In: Transactions of the English Ceramic Circle, Volume 30, 2019, pp. 83-96.

Is that really Wedgwood? – The Genius of Norman Wilson. In: Northern Ceramics Society Journal, Volume 35, 2019, pp. 127-144.

“Wedgwoodarbeit” – Der Einfluss der Jasperware Josiah Wedgwoods auf die deutschen Porzellanmanufakturen KPM und Meissen. 1750 – 1850. In: KERAMOS. Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft der Keramikfreunde e.V., 2016, pp. 25-102.

Picasso als Kunsthandwerker – Picasso as an Artisan. In: ART AUREA Journal for Applied Arts, Jewellery and Design, Autumn 2013, pp. 84-88.